World's first stem cell treatment restores vision, offers new hope to the blind

A Lancet study has highlighted lasting vision improvements in four patients with damaged corneas using reprogrammed stem-cell transplants in Japan.

In Short

• A stem-cell transplant helped restore vision in four people
• The study published in the Lancet was conducted in Japan
• The technique involves reprogramming healthy blood cells which restores damaged corneas

A recent Lancet study has revealed that stem-cell transplants using reprogrammed stem cells have brought significant, lasting improvements in vision for people with severely damaged corneas.

The study focused on four patients with limbal stem-cell deficiency (LSCD), a condition that leads to blindness due to corneal scarring.

These patients received corneal cell transplants derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, a cutting-edge approach that appears to offer hope for those with this challenging condition.

Three of the four patients experienced major, sustained vision improvements for over a year, while the fourth saw temporary gains.

LSCD often necessitates a high-risk corneal transplant from a healthy donor or the patient’s other eye, making this new procedure a promising alternative.

Developed by Dr Kohji Nishida at Osaka University, Japan, the iPS-cell-based technique involves reprogramming healthy blood cells back to an embryonic-like state.

These cells are then used to create a transparent tissue sheet, which is grafted onto damaged corneas. The four patients underwent this procedure between 2019 and 2020.

Encouragingly, none of the transplanted cells formed tumors or showed signs of immune rejection, even in two patients who did not take immunosuppressant drugs.

All four patients reported immediate improvements in vision following the procedure, with researchers suggesting that the transplanted cells may have stimulated their own cells to aid corneal repair.

This breakthrough offers a promising new avenue for restoring sight to individuals with LSCD and may pave the way for further advancements in stem cell-based eye treatments.