Friday, November 10, 2006

"Blind mice treated with stem cells regain sight"

Times Online
"The cells used by the team have been programmed to be, but have yet to become, mature photoreceptors. This means that once transplanted, they are primed and ready to integrate with the retina.
A second encouraging feature of the research, reported in Nature, is that the retina accepted the new cells.
Jane Sowden, co-leader of the research, said: “Remarkably, we found that the mature retina, previously believed to have no capacity for repair, is in fact able to support the development of new functional photoreceptors.”
It seems possible that the eye already possesses a source of such cells. On the margin of the retina there are cells with stem cell-like properties — that is, cells capable of self-renewal."