Eyesight Recovery

Vision is one of the most important senses in the human body. We see and explore the beauty of

world through our eyes and without this sense, the it would greatly impact one’s life. However, unlike many diseases, eyesight is very difficult to repair once damaged and possible uses of stem cell technology are still being discovered by scientists, exploring possible ways to restore the gift of eyesight to patients. The light-sensitive retina layer in the eye contains photoreceptor cells (PR) called rods and cones that are responsible for detecting color and light intensity. The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is an essential supporting tissue and provides nutrition to the light sensitive cells of the retina. It also is responsible for cleaning out retinol, the production of pigment and phagocytosis of photoreceptor cells’ outer segments of the rods and the cones. Any damage to the RPE cells renders the photoreceptor cells of the retina vulnerable to damage and can result in their rapid degeneration. This occurs many times for various reasons including old age, optic nerve hyperplasia, retinitis pigmentosa, etc.  Regarding the fact that it is not practical to repair such intricate aspects of the human eye, transplant to replace the damaged cells with new, healthy ones is well-advised. Induced pluripotent stem cells have been successfully used in this case for replacing RPE and PR cells.

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