Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common visual impairment in the elderly. It is also the leading cause of blindness among Western seniors, where it affects 12% of 65-75 year olds and 25 to 30% of over 75s. This degeneration results in progressive deterioration of retinal tissue in dry AMD, and in the formation of new blood vessels under the retina in wet AMD.
While the current treatments fail to repair the damage seen in the eye caused by AMD, a team from the RIKEN Scientific Research Institute in Japan has just completed a graft of stem cells from a 70-year-old female patient with wet AMD.
The operation first consisted of transforming cells from the patient’s skin, taken from her arm, into pluripotent stem cells, that is to say, capable of differentiating into any other type of cell, either here in retinal tissue cells.
THE’ophthalmologist Yasuo Kurimoto and his team then inserted a sheet containing a monolayer of these cells into the patient’s subretinal space, after removing the disease-damaged tissue.
If the operation lasted two hours, it did not cause any complications.
The patient will benefit from a close observation period for one year, followed by regular follow-up for three years.
The clinical trial performed will be validated based on the results obtained during this first period of testing. Optimistic, the RIKEN Institute will soon open a website describing the research protocol and other details of this pilot study, to awaken the general public’s interest in age-related macular degeneration.
