Macular degeneration: 'I've been given my sight back'

This is a phase 1 trial (usually just undertaken to check safety before larger trials are done to test efficacy and dose), so it seems all the more amazing that such a big improvement was seen.

I'd love to know if similar work is being done for loss of hearing/deafness. Is there an auditory equivalent to retinal pigment epithelium that nourishes the hair cell stereocilia?

Most stem cell therapies produce benefits through the signaling of the transplanted cells, near all of which die off rather than integrate. This is an example of an approach that goes beyond that, providing a set of more organized cells in a thin tissue segment that looks more like the native tissue. When this was done for the heart, 10% of cells survived (this is a large number in the scope of stem cell therapies).<p>So it is interesting to speculate on the degree to which the benefits here are signaling versus cell integration. Clearly the big difference between past attempts is that a tissue-like set of organized cells are delivered rather than just free-floating unorganized cells.

My mother had macular degeneration. She lost almost all vision in a couple of years. She was a very active women all her life, a business woman when women had to ask permission to her husband to open a bank account. It was devasting for such an independent person. She was deeply depressed and being in her early seventies her health deteriorated quickly, finally dying.<p>If researchers find a solution it will improve the quality of life of millions elder people.

I have had 4 retinal detachment surgeries on my left eye, with the last rendering it blind.<p>I had one retinal detachment surgery and a subsequent cataract surgery (since vitrectomy almost always results in a cataract) on my right eye. It&#x27;s fairly stable but my vision is not great.<p>I&#x27;m hoping for stem cell therapy sometime in my life to help repair areas of my right eye that are no longer great (retinoschisis and general rod&#x2F;cone dystrophy) and to make sure I&#x27;m seeing well into my later years of life.

About a year and a half ago, my wife was showing symptoms of early-onset macular degeneration, and it led to a rabbit hole of me searching for treatments, and I remember the earlier stages of this being discussed.<p>While it turned out that my wife&#x27;s issue was (fortunately) something less severe, it still makes me happy to see that this treatment has had some success.

Wow, that&#x27;s pretty cool. One of the things I worked on a couple companies back was this: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.centervue.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;compass&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.centervue.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;compass&#x2F;</a> which is a system used to measure how much people are losing their vision from things like macular degeneration.

&gt; Cells from a human embryo<p>Are they sure? They can now harvest stem cells from regular tissue and blood, as I understand it

&gt;Both patients in the trial had &quot;wet&quot; age-related macular degeneration. This form of the disease is caused by abnormal blood vessels growing through the retinal pigment epithelium and damaging the macula. Dry age-related macular degeneration is more common and caused by the retinal pigment epithelium breaking down.<p>If this is a viable treatment method, it would help only the minority of macular degeration patients.

What&#x27;s the latest on optic nerve regeneration with stem cells?

“He was one of two patients given pioneering stem&quot; I find the tiny test groups in medical ‘research’ so strange.

&gt;Cells from a human embryo were grown into a patch that was delicately inserted into the back of the eye.<p>I assume the baby didn&#x27;t survive the process since there&#x27;s no mention of that.