Ophthalmology

A Cure for Age-Related Macular Degeneration?

Until now, patients who suffer from one of the most common causes of vision loss have had little hope for treatment. Age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, typically strikes people older than 60 by thinning a layer of cells at the back of the eye known as the retinal pigment epithelium. This layer of cells eliminates waste from the eye and nourishes photoreceptors, the neurons that absorb and convert the light that creates the images we see. As the disease progresses, photoreceptors die, and patients lose central vision--the ability to see what is directly in front of them; peripheral vision is not affected. Embryonic stem cells may be able to halt the progress of the disease. When researchers used stem cells to create new retinal pigment cells and injected them under the retinas of rats, the new cells helped restore the epithelium, temporarily stopping the degeneration of the retina and rescuing threatened photoreceptors.
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Scientific American