Written by Matthew Swigonski | Published
In a major step that could lead to jaw recovery for people affected by conditions such as macular holes, researchers at Kobe Eye Hospital in Japan have repaired a hole in a monkey’s retina using stem cells.
In a revolutionary study published in the medical journal, Stem Cell Reports, a team led by Dr. Michiko Mandai looked to repair a macular hole in the eye of a Japanese macaque. According to the study, after a patch made of human stem cells was implanted in the macaque’s retina, the animal’s vision improved significantly during its recovery period.
A Cure for Macular Holes?
According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, a macular hole is defined as a round hole in your macula, creating vision that may be blurry, wavy, or distorted. As the macular hole increases in size, a dark or blind spot appears in a person’s central vision, which greatly affects a person’s quality of life.
To Dr. Mandai and his research team at Kobe Eye Hospital, their year-long research focused on the development of miniature versions of retinas derived from human cells, with the aim of creating a process to restore vision.
To test the performance of human-made retinal sheets, Dr. However, that second lab found that one of the macaques was unable to complete a series of vision-based tests that any of the other macaques were able to complete. After careful examination, it was determined that the macaque was suffering from a macular hole, which greatly affected its vision and made completing the visual examination very difficult.
Testing Procedures On Macaques
Seeing an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, a visually impaired macaque was sent to the laboratory of Dr. The research team then created a retinal sheet derived from human stem cells and attached the sheet to the retina of a mackerel, all in the hope of improving the animal’s eyesight. According to the research team’s study, not only was the implant completely safe and relatively minimally invasive but the monkey’s performance in visual-based tests improved after its recovery.
Despite the success of the transplantation of the stem cell sheet and the recovery of improved macque vision, the procedure still had a small problem in the form of “small rejection” of the retinal organoid sheet. According to Mandai, the macaque’s immune system briefly attacked the transplanted sheet, but that was cleared up with a series of steroid injections that suppressed the immune system’s attack. According to Mandai, “Transplantation of human tissue in a person can have a small risk of an immune reaction,” which leads to several complications he said.
Alternative Surgery
In general, conditions such as macular holes or retinal degeneration are not only debilitating but also difficult to treat effectively, often leading to complications or even partial blindness. In some cases of macular holes, doctors treat the patient with an operation called a vitrectomy, where the surgeon removes the vitreous that pulls the macula. A gas bubble is then placed in the eye to help flatten the macular hole and hold it in place while the eye heals.
Following the procedure, the gas bubble in the eye gradually goes away on its own as the patient heals and the hole begins to close, restoring part of the patients vision, although the results often depend on the size of the hole. With a new process based on human stem cells, vision therapy may offer less risk to human patients with an increased chance of regaining sight.
Source: Stem Cell Reports