Stem Cell Treatment of Eye | Eye Stem Cell Center

Eyesight is one of the most developed and important sense organs. 80% of what we perceive comes from our ability to see. Eye damage is next to a nightmare one can ever imagine. Loss of vision can have a huge negative impact on a person’s life, but stem cell therapy for an eye has given hope that vision can be restored. 

THE MAIN PARTS OF EYE ARE

Cornea– It is the transparent, anterior or front part of our eye. The main function is to refract the light along with the lens.

Lens– It is a transparent, biconvex, lens of an eye. The lens is attached to the ciliary body by ligaments.

Retina– It is the innermost layer of the eye. It is light sensitive and acts as a film of a camera. 

Optic nerve- Optic nerve encodes the image data recorded by the retina in the form of neural signals that can be read by the brain.

Retinal pigment epithelium- A sheet of black cells that sit beneath the retina. This sheet supports the retina and has a number of important roles, including processing nutrients.

Disorder or disease occurs when one or more than one of these components gets damaged. Different disorders damage different cells of the eye. Here comes the role of stem cell treatment. Different stem cells or specialized cells are used to cure the damage depending on the type of disorder. 

Do you know? 

The variety of stem cells present in the eye helps to replace the damaged or worn-out cells. Even blinking damages the surface of eye but it a good thing that stem cell is present to replenish it. 

Optic Nerve Atrophy 

Optic Nerve atrophy that means connectivity in between brain to eye has been damagedwhich is not possible to regenrate by itslef and Glaucoma (high eye prresure) and any brain injury or brain tumor surgery are the main cause to damage optic nerve cells of eye. Stem cell treatment plays a very good role to regenrate opric nerve cells and makes optic nerve moe healthy and regenerative and enhance some vision back.

Retinal and Macular disorders 

Several diseases are marked by retinal degeneration that eventually leads to blindness. Retinal disorders commonly involve the loss of photoreceptor cells which comes in Retinitis Pigmentosa disease, which depletes the eye’s rod and cones cells (responsible fro day and night vision). In some retinal disorders, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), this loss results from the failure of the epithelial cells that form a layer at the back of the retina known as the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). The RPE keeps photoreceptor cells healthy by cleaning up toxic by-products produced during the reaction with light, as well as by providing nutrients. In retinal disorders in which photoreceptors remain in good shape, the main cause of blindness is degeneration of retinal ganglion cells.

STEM CELL THERAPY 

Here the question comes can blindness be cured? 

 You might have heard about stem cell therapy and wondered if it could help you or someone you know who is living with vision loss. To help answer your questions, we’ve put together some information about stem cell treatment and how it helps to cure blindness. 

Stem cell therapy for the eye is getting headlines as they are the potential to cure diseases for which there are no other treatments. Stem cell treatment for the eye is collecting a lot of attention because of its success rate. 

Stem-cell therapy could potentially cure blindness even in the late stages of the disease. Because stem cells can be coaxed into becoming any type of cell, they could be used to grow fresh retinal cells for transplantation into the eye to replace those that have been lost.

THREE MAIN TYPES OF STEM CELLS ARE USED IN VISION TREATMENT 

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs)

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are pluripotent, which means they can become any type of cell in the body. Because of this ability, ESCs have been very important in stem cell therapy and in the research which is been carried out by researchers to explore more about stem cell treatment.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are adult cells. They have been changed to act like ESCs. About 15 years ago, scientists discovered that they could change the genes of an adult cell such as a skin or a blood cell and turn it into an iPSC. iPSCs can make all cell types. Above all, they can be made in the laboratory so there is an unlimited supply of them.

Adult stem cells

Adult stem cells are found in small numbers in many tissues. They can turn into a few but not all types of cells. Some adult stem cells, like bone marrow stem cells, umbilical cord tissue and adipose derivd stem cells, which can create almost all type of organ specific cells and also helpful to regenrate almost all type of eye cells. Adult stem cells exist in the retina. They are called retinal progenitor cells. In the body, retinal progenitor cells don’t normally make new retinal cells even if there is damage. But researchers have been able to encourage them to make new retinal cells in the laboratory. Adult stem cells are being studied as treatments for blindness. 

STEM CELL THERAPY FOR VISION LOSS

There is a lot of suggestions carried out about stem cell therapy as a treatment for vision loss because a single stem cell therapy may be able to treat different eye diseases. Stem cell therapy could also be useful for individuals whose disease is very premature and there is a lot of cell injury. 

Examples of how stem cells are being used for vision loss:

• Corneal limbal stem cells from a donor or the patient’s other eye are used for the treatment of some types of corneal damage or disease.
• Retinal degeneration in diseases like AMD, retinitis pigmentosa, or choroideremia can be the result of different factors. But ultimately it leads to the death of the light-sensing photoreceptor cells as well as their support cells, retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. Scientists have had the most success in making and transplanting RPE cells and clinical trials are testing if RPE cells, made from ESCs or iPSCs can improve vision for individuals with retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt disease, or dry AMD.

Moreover, Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona are working to advance the stem cell treatment for retinal degeneration.

Holoclar® is currently the only clinically approved stem cell treatment for the eye. This treatment restores vision to patients with damaged corneas (the clear outermost part of the eye) by transplanting lab-grown limbal stem cells into areas of the eye lacking these cells.