Lab-grown eye cells successfully ‘connect’ to retina
(STUDY FINDS) – Vision is easy to take for granted, but just the thought of blindness is enough to terrify many people. Unfortunately, modern medicine offers frustratingly few treatment options once blindness sets in. However, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have made a stem cell breakthrough that could finally lead to a cure for degenerative eye disorders.
Scientists successfully demonstrated that retinal cells grown from stem cells are capable of “reaching out and connecting” with their neighboring cells. This cellular handshake, if you will, suggests that the cells are ready for clinical trials in humans dealing with vision loss, study author adds.
Over a decade ago, researchers at UWM developed a way to grow organized clusters of cells (organoids), that resemble the retina – light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. Scientists then coaxed human skin cells reprogrammed to act as stem cells to develop into layers of numerous types of retinal cells that sense light, ultimately transmitting what we see to our brains.
“We wanted to use the cells from those organoids as replacement parts for the same types of cells that have been lost in the course of retinal diseases,” says David Gamm, the UW–Madison ophthalmology professor and director of the McPherson Eye Research Institute whose lab developed the organoids, in a university release. “But after being grown in a laboratory dish for months as compact clusters, the question remained — will the cells behave appropriately after we tease them apart? Because that is key to introducing them into a patient’s eye.”