Stem Cells Curing Burn-Induced Blindness

mcgrew writes "The AP (via Yahoo) is reporting that Italian researchers can now cure blindness caused by chemical burns using the patient's own stem cells. 'The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14 others, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision.' Previously, this kind of injury needed either a corneal transplant or stem cells from someone else, both of which are plagued by problems with tissue rejection. Unfortunately, this only works for damaged corneas — so far."

Comments

Re:Stem cell extraction

[PolygamousRanchKid]

From TFA: "Nor would it work in people who are completely blind in both eyes, because doctors need at least some healthy tissue that they can transplant." So it comes from the other, healthy eye.

And I was hoping that it would come from wanking: "It both causes blindness, and cures it too!"

Re:Uh oh!

[ArsonSmith]

I think it is more his prior art in the ability to restore blindness.

Re:Uh oh!

[mcgrew]

Why not? After all, his dad supplied the stem cells and the surgeons.

Re:PLEASE....

[city]

Stem cells are being shown to work in the few areas scientists are funded to study them. I dont think its a straw man argument to say that the religious zealots are stopping people with other conditions from being helped. If you want to split the generic/embryonic hairs here, that is your problem.