Update on ACT and Retinal Regeneration
Advanced Cell Technology continue to push on towards a commercial therapy; it's certainly been a long road. "An experimental therapy using human embryonic stem cells to treat degenerative eye diseases has proved safe and effective in animal studies, and may begin early human trials in the next few months if it receives approval from the Food and Drug Administration. [The therapy] uses human embryonic stem cells to re-create a type of cell in the retina that supports the photoreceptors needed for vision. These cells, called retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), are often the first to die off in age-related macular degeneration and other eye diseases, which in turn leads to loss of vision ... . Although the transplants did restore visual function in the eye, the benefit was not always sustained over time in animals. ... these experimental therapies rely on the assumption that cells generated from embryonic stem cells will function like their normal counterparts. ... the cells may not represent an exact replacement ... Scientists won't know for sure until they see how the cells perform in clinical trials."
Link: http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=22871