Blind have their sight restored

A CONTROVERSIAL trial treatment for vision loss using human embryonic stem cells has produced “ground-breaking” early results, scientists claim.

Two “legally blind” patients with different forms of macular degeneration – one old and one middle-aged – had shown signs of improved vision four months after receiving the implants, said researchers.

One, a woman in her 50’s suffering from Stargardt’s disease, went from being unable to read any letters in a standard eye test to reading five letters. The other patient, a woman in her 70s experienced an improvement that allowed her to read 28 rather than 21 letters.

The results, from a trial being conducted in the US, are due to appear in the latest issue of The Lancet medical journal.

The two women were given transplants of retinal tissue grown in the laboratory from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Their use is controversial because they are obtained from early-stage embryos.