UK: revolutionary breakthrough in blindness cure

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UK: revolutionary breakthrough in blindness cure

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04 November,2010 08:02 am

Three blind patients have their sight partly restored after scientists developed an eye implant in a breakthrough that is being called a significant advance . Below are other examples of scientific breakthroughs in the race to cure blindness. Stem cells grown on contact lenses could be a cure for a common cause of blindness, claim scientists. Australian researchers said that the world breakthrough could dramatically improve the sight of patients with damage to their cornea the clear outer shell of the eye caused by disease or injury. The research team removed tissue with regenerative stem cells from patients' own eyes and then multiplied them in the laboratory on the surface of a contact lens. This was then placed back onto the damaged cornea for 10 days, during which the cells, which can turn into any other sort of cell, were able to recolonise and patch the damaged eye surface. Within weeks the patients saw dramatic improvements in their vision. If early findings bear out then the treatment could be affective for thousands of patients in Britain and is so cheap it could be used for millions more in the Third World.