Repairing Macular Degeneration
Progress in biological engineering via the Telegraph, this time in repair strategies for the macula: "More than 500,000 people in the UK have irreversible blindness caused by macular degeneration ... The disease is marked by a progressive loss of central vision due to degeneration of the macula - a pigmented spot at the back of the retina. ... Using surgical instruments introduced through three one millimetre holes in the eye, the team goes under the retina, a translucent layer, then inflate it so it separates from the underlying cells. The human eye cells derived from embryonic cells were then introduced on a rolled up patch and injected through a one millimetre hole, where the patch of human cells unfolded under the retina. ... The results are really encouraging. We plan to do the first patient within three years ... As a human trial run for the operations, the team has also repaired the vision of four out of 12 patients with the wet form of macular degeneration by moving around their own tissue within the eye." A decade from now, this sort of early regenerative medicine will be commonplace and widely available.
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/01/16/sciblind116.xml