Research

Future treatments for macular degeneration (AMD), Stargardt’s disease, and retinitis pigmentosa may include bone marrow stem cell injections, if a new line of eye research pans out. A preliminary pilot study on six subjects with one of several ischemic eye diseases found that most patients had vision improvement after receiving injections of their own bone marrow.

The purpose of the study was to find out if there were any adverse side effects and to test for vision improvement. The only significant negative side effect was some pain after bone marrow
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Scientists have partially restored sight in blind mice using a protein to repair damaged cells in the retina. These experiments may ultimately lead to treatments that restore sight in patients with progressive degenerative retinal diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration.

The research at the University of Bern in Switzerland and the University of Göttingen in Germany used “optogenetics,” which involves utilizing light to control neurons. They introduced new light-sensing proteins called Opto-mGluR6 into the eye. In essence, this turned the old cells into photoreceptors. These cells were then able to process
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A new method has been studied for turning cells into multipurpose stem cells. The technique, which exposes cells to a mild acid bath, may present a more efficient source of stem cells than those currently in use. While this method was only performed in a study with mice, the hope is it can be reproduced with human cells in the future.

The new method was tested by researchers in Kobe, Japan and in Boston. To achieve pluripotency,
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Many advances in technology that could improve the lives of blind people are on the horizon. Solutions that were thought impossible not long ago are now becoming a reality for many patients suffering from retinal diseases. Treatments such as gene therapy, stem cells, and bionic retinas have shown that vision loss can in fact be reversible.

Common degenerative diseases of the retina, like age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa (RP), affect tens of millions of people worldwide, but blindness resulting from these conditions had previously been considered irreversible.
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A cutting-edge project has produced a vast “road map” for proteins in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and choroid of the eye. The project, conducted by recent grantees of a BrightFocus grant, mapped the locations and quantities of 4,403 different eye proteins. This research could be invaluable to further understanding of conditions such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD). 
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Donated eyes from the dead may be the key to giving sight back to the living. Researchers have found that cells from the back of the eye may be taken from donated eyes and used to repair the eyes of the blind. Human cells have successfully been used to restore some sight to blind mice, with human trials set to begin in the next three years.

The special type of cells extracted from the back of the eye are called
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Study could lead to new therapies to help improve sight following trauma or stroke

University of Texas neuroscientists having been looking at how nerve cells in the visual cortex of the brain handle and adapt to images as they change.

Researchers evaluated the results of stimulating the visual cortex upon optic neurons whose electrical activity was measured at the same time in lab animals.  With the animal viewing movies they monitored the behavior of visual cortex neurons as the images changed.
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The six patients had severe vision loss from choroideremia, a form of retinopathy that is genetic. The disease is fairly rare and manifests only in males. The cells at the back of the eye gradually die, leading to gradual vision loss and ultimately, blindness. Working copies of the faulty gene were injected into retina cells, along with a fluid to halt further degeneration.

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