A patient in the United Kingdom has just received the first stem cell treatment to cure loss of vision. It is the first treatment of its kind in the UK and if successful may result in thousands of Britons regaining their eyesight.

The woman who received the treatment has age-related macular degeneration, a condition that affects more than 700,000 people in the United Kingdom. It is a painless eye condition that causes a person to gradually lose central vision. Because it does not affect peripheral vision, a person with macular degeneration retains a small amount of eye-sight.

The treatment took place at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. Another 10 patients will undergo the treatment in the near future as a part of the trial. Doctors will know if the first treatment has been successful sometime in December.

To perform the procedure, doctors used eye cells known as retinal pigment epithelium, which were grown from stem cells. They eye cells were grown in a laboratory to form a patch that is later inserted under their patient’s retina.

This treatment is part of an initiative by the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and the National Institute for Health Research, which aims to cure blindness within 10-years.

The trial hopes to demonstrate that the technique is both safe and effective. Regulatory health bodies in the United Kingdom are closely monitoring the procedure and outcome to see if the technique works. If it does, it will be a major breakthrough that will benefit a huge number of people.

The initial test subjects all have the ‘wet’ form of macular degeneration and lost their vision in a very short space of time. If the trial is successful, a stem cell treatment to cure loss of vision could be available within a few short years.

Source: First UK patient receives stem cell treatment to cure loss of vision

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