Is It Possible To Reverse Blindness?

Ground breaking new research recently published within the Journal PLOS ONE has given new hope to the hundreds of thousands who are suffering with blinding conditions such as macular degeneration.

Researchers from the University of Southampton believe they have found a source of stem cells in the ‘corneal limbus’ area of the eye which can be converted into light reacting cells called ‘photo-receptor’ cells.  These photo receptor cells now give the possibility of being implanted into an eye affected by such conditions including retinitis pigmentosa, which could effectively reverse blindless.

Rejection or complications from the implanted stem cells would also be eliminated because the cells would be taken from the same patient they would be used on after being cultured in the lab.

With the Telegraph reporting that almost two million people in the UK are living with sight loss, this research makes an incredible step towards treating the once thought untreatable causes of blindness. However with clinical trials yet to take place, this treatment is still a long way off but holds great potential and hope for the future of reversing blindness.

LaserVision will be sure to keep our readers up to date with any future news on this subject.

Source: PLOS ONE