Sep 21 2006, 12:01 AM EST
News source: Business Wire
Embryonic stem cells can serve as a renewable source of replacement tissue to rescue visual function in rats with degenerative eye disease similar to age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in humans, according to a report to be published in the Fall 2006 (Volume 8, Number 3) issue of Cloning and Stem Cells, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The paper is available online ahead of print at www.liebertpub.com/cloRobert Lanza, M.D. and Irina Klimanskaya, Ph.D. at Advanced Cell Technology (Worcester, MA), and Raymond Lund, Ph.D. and colleagues at the University of Utah Health Science Center (Salt Lake City) generated retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)--the cells that support photoreceptor function in the eye--from human embryonic stem cell lines grown in culture in the laboratory. They transplanted the engineered tissue into the eyes of rats that had a defect in their RPE. This defect results in the loss of photoreceptors and visual function.
The authors reported 100% improvement in visual performance (spatial acuity) in treated animals compared to an untreated control group, and the transplanted RPE cells did not cause any pathology. In the treated rats, spatial acuity, or the ability to see fine detail, was approximately 70% that of normal rats (that had no RPE defect).
"These observations are very exciting as they show that one day it will be possible to treat diseases of human eyes with cells," says Ian Wilmut, Ph.D., Editor-In-Chief of Cloning and Stem Cells and director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine, in Edinburgh, Scotland. "They also emphasize the great potential benefit of research with human embryo stem cells, in this case for cell therapy."
Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in persons over age 60 in the United States and affects more than 30 million people worldwide. Embryonic stem cells would offer a readily available, safe, and reproducible source of replacement tissue to restore photoreceptors damaged or destroyed by disease and to restore a range of visual functions.
Ongoing advances in tissue engineering and new methods for cultivating ESCs may lead in the future to the development of RPE cell lines less likely to trigger an immune reaction response in transplant recipients, offering improved options for cell therapy.
Cloning and Stem Cells is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published quarterly in print and online that focuses on understanding developmental plasticity and defining the molecular mechanisms that regulate differentiation or dedifferentiation of nuclei and cells. Tables of contents and a free sample issue may be viewed online at www.liebertpub.com/clo.
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is a privately, held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Human Gene Therapy, Stem Cells and Development, and Tissue Engineering. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 60 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at www.liebertpub.com.
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