Stem Cells Restore Sight For Corneal Disease Patients

Sean0michael writes "Australian scientists have restored the sight of three human test subjects using stem cells cultured in contact lenses. All the patients were blind in only one eye. Two were legally blind, but can now read the big letters on an eye chart. The third could read the first few lines, but is now able to pass a driver's test. The University of New South Wales reports that these patients all had damaged corneas, and the stem cells came from each person's good eye. The best part: the procedure is inexpensive, raising hopes for being able to push this to the third world sooner than other, more expensive medications."

Comments

!embroyonic

[bensafrickingenius]

Again.

Re:!embroyonic

[EkriirkE]

"The good news is no aborted fetuses were harmed in the course of these tests."

Re:!embroyonic

[interkin3tic]

Embryonic stem cells don't come from aborted fetuses. They come from in vitro fertilization. ESC are harvested 5 days after fertilization, abortions aren't performed 5 days after fertilization because you wouldn't know.

Re:!embroyonic

[pavon]

Which is to be expected. Controlling the differentiation of a cell is still not completely understood and difficult to do. It is easier with partially differentiated cells, and hence with stem cells from the tissue that we wish to regrow. Therefore, the first practical treatments and applications of stem cell research will be using adult stem cells.

Where embryonic stem cells come into play is by helping understand this differentiation process better. Increasing our knowledge will enable us to develop treatments that aren't possible using adult stem cells, but it will also likely contribute to having safer more effective adult stem cell treatments treatments. It may even shed some light into the entire aging process and cell life-cycle. They are very important things to be studying.

To put it succinctly, adult stem cells are currently at the R&D stage, embryonic at the pure science stage. Both are important.

Re:!embroyonic

[harryandthehenderson]

In fact, I am not sure that there has been even one single break through that wasn't from adult stem cells.

That's due to your own ignorance not any actual facts. I found one example just in 2 seconds of googling. This FDA approved study was based on a previous trial that was able to successfully restore locomotion to those with spinal cord injuries. It is not even the only example just the first one that I found.

Re:!embroyonic

[harryandthehenderson]

Aborted fetuses aren't used as a source of stem cells since all the cells would be dead. The embryonic stem cells are harvested from leftover frozen embryos from people doing invitro-fertilization that would normally just be thrown out.

Re:!embroyonic

[harryandthehenderson]

Ah, dude, he said breakthroughs, not research.

I already told you what the breakthrough was. They were able to successfully restore locomotion using embryonic stem cells in people with spinal cord injuries.

I also did a google search and didn't find much that was successful, though there are hundreds of breakthroughs using adult stem cells.

Which are all using as a base the work of those working on embryonic stem cells. Anyone who thinks that none of these breakthroughs were based off of any work done with embryonic stem cells is just plain ignorant.

Re:!embroyonic

[harryandthehenderson]

OR maybe we think that the embryos shouldn't have been created in the first place.

Well then it's amazing that not a single one of the embryonic stem cell whiners have ever publicly stated this.

Only take what you need for the in vitro fertilization and no more.

But one doesn't know how many are going to be needed which is why they make and freeze so many. If you knew anything about how in-vitro fertilization works you'd know that there are usually a very small likelihood of successful implantation which is why they have to create so many.

Then you don't have an ethical dilemma about whether to kill them by throwing them in the garbage or kill them to experiment with ESCs.

There is nothing to kill. These are just clumps of undifferentiated cells.

ESC research could actually induce fertilization clinics to make MORE embryos than they need, knowing they'll be used for research as well.

And yet they don't need to since the fertilization clinics already had way more than they can use even before embryonic stem cell research started.

But it's nice of you to put words in the mouths of people like me to tear down to benefit your argument.

I didn't put in words into anyone's mouth. I was just describing the ultimate reality of what happens when the frozen embryos aren't allowed to be used for research. They are incinerated or simply thrown away.

You could call it a strawman.

Outlining the consequences of what happens when the embryos aren't allowed to be used isn't a strawman.

Congratulations on the insightful mod since that strawman was pretty tough to tear down.

You didn't tear anything down. You just basically repeated the wacko nonsense that comes from the religious right.

Re:!embroyonic

[Bryansix]

I don't know if you forgot but there ARE other countries in the world besides the United States of America. Your explanation makes no sense.

Types of stem cells

[oneirophrenos]

The article doesn't go into very much detail on what the stem cells really were or how the were produced, so I assume what they refer to as "stem cells" are really multipotent stem cells (or so-called progenitor cells), rather than the pluripotent stem cells that are obtained from the embryo and that can differentiate into any adult tissue. Multipotent stem cells are found in many regenenerating tissues, such as epithelia and bone marrow, but it should be noted that they are not stem cells in the sense that they would retain the ability to differentiate into any cell type.

Re:Types of stem cells

[harryandthehenderson]

The article doesn't go into very much detail on what the stem cells really were or how the were produced,

They weren't produced. They were somatic stem cells that were in the patients good eyes.

so I assume what they refer to as "stem cells" are really multipotent stem cells (or so-called progenitor cells [wikipedia.org])

No, you would be wrong. As the summary and the article state these are adult stem cells or somatic stem cells as they are also called.

I'm THRILLED by this

[Xaedalus]

I had Lasik done when I was 20, back in the late 90s. Six good years of eyesight later, I started to develop an abnormality in my right now. Now, in my early thirties, I've been diagnosed with keratoconus in my right eye, and I might possibly have it in my left. While Lasik doesn't explicitly cause keratoconus, we also didn't know back in the 90's that some people might have corneas with hidden defects that might not take too well to a laser shaving off a couple of layers. So if they can come up with a way to take stem cells and create whole new corneas to replace damaged ones, then I for one will be anxiously awaiting the day when it becomes available in the United States (about ten years from now most likely, given the FDA's restrictions). I'd like to have normal eyes again, and not worry about one day having to undergo a corneal transplant. So this is AWESOME that they can do that. More power to stem cell research!!!!

Re:"killing dead babies"?

[Snarf You]

How exactly does one kill something that is already dead?

With a wooden stake, garlic, and holy water, under the light of a full moon.