A new study shows a promising procedure for treating severe injuries in one eye, using stem cells from the other eye. The preliminary findings were published yesterday in the journal Science Advances.
The scientists took a small sample from healthy eyes, to grow and expand stem cells in a laboratory, and then transplanted them into the affected eyes, according to Sky News.
Four patients underwent transplantation in the initial trials. The first was Phil Durst, an Alabama man who suffered a chemical burn that left him blind in his left eye, unable to tolerate light, and suffering frequent headaches.
But the man, after undergoing surgery using cells from his right eye, can now see enough to drive his car.
“The experimental technique involves taking a small biopsy of stem cells from a healthy eye, then expanding and growing it in a laboratory at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston,” ophthalmologist Ola Jurkonas, lead author of the study, told Science Advances. After two weeks, the cells are returned to be transplanted into the affected eye.
“Durst was the first patient to undergo this procedure,” she said. The most important thing is that we use the patient’s own tissue, not donor tissue that the body may reject. “This method is better than a different procedure that takes a large piece of stem cells from a healthy eye to use on the affected eye, as that risks damaging the healthy eye.”
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