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The World Ophthamology Congress 2008 is just finishing up its annual meeting in Hong Kong this week. And unsurprisingly, repair stem cells have stolen the show. In another breakthrough in stem cell research, a surgeon did a trial in which he implanted the patient's own stem cells back into their retinas' and the repair stem cells did their job and repaired the macular holes it seems:
"We have entered into a new era," Raj Vardhan Azad, MD, FRCS, FAMS, said at the World Ophthalmology Congress. "The technique of transplantation of bone marrow [stem] cells in the subretinal space is safe with no side effects and is a new concept." In this study, 10 patients who had previously failed macular hole surgery underwent bone marrow aspiration from the iliac crest and intravitreal implantation of those stem cells into their retina.
"We thought that this was something that could give us a benefit in the sense that it may close the hole and also increase the visual acuity," Dr. Azad said.
Preoperatively, the mean best corrected visual acuity of the patients was 6/60 and the mean optical coherence tomography measurement was 792 µm. At 1 week postop, BCVA was 4/60. At 3 months postop, BCVA was 6/60 and the OCT measurement was 629 µm. Dr. Azad presented the OCT images that showed the macular hole had closed or become smaller in the 10 patients, who had stable vision
Experimental evidence following intravitreal implantation of bone marrow stem cells indicates integration and proliferation of stem cells into different retinal layers," Dr. Azad said. "Clinical evidence, as shown in our study, indicates that it is safe. (of course it is safe- it is the patient's own repair stem cells-DM)
"We have the evidence that stem cell productivity could eventually be used to treat deteriorating vision in humans," Dr. Azad said. (Eventually? Why not start now?- DM)