Comments | ontd_political: Stem cells reverse blindness caused by burns

mercurychaos in ontd_political

Stem cells reverse blindness caused by burns

Jun 24, 2010 09:08

Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells - a stunning success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported Wednesday.

The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and ( Read more... )

science, stem cell research

Comments 12

fruiterian June 24 2010, 17:34:26 UTC

Yup, this is totally about adult stem cells. I haven't kept up with the literature for a little while, but I'm pretty sure a study has approval to start in the states treating some sort of congenital blindness with embryonic stem cells (or possibly iPSC, or both, I forget... the company that was going to do it does a lot of stuff with iPSC).

The original journal article if anyone's interested in a hella science-y read.

alryssa June 24 2010, 18:40:32 UTC

This? Is a Big Fucking Deal.

\o/

FUCK YEAH SCIENCE! noir_aya June 25 2010, 02:36:55 UTC

( ... )

peebs1701 June 25 2010, 16:09:55 UTC

I've read about this before. There's a great biography of a man who lost his eyesight due to chemical burns at age 3 then got vision back decades later with stem cell therapy. He was totally bad-ass too and did stuff like take his sister's car for a joyride as a teenager and ride a bike through town.

http://www.amazon.com/Crashing-Through-Extraordinary-Story-Dared/dp/0812973682/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277482118&sr=8-1