Macular degeneration treatment

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-43458365

By James Gallagher
Mar. 19, 2018

Douglas Waters, 86, could not see out of his right eye, but "I can now read the newspaper" with it, he says.

He was one of two patients given pioneering stem cell therapy at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

Cells from a human embryo were grown into a patch that was delicately inserted into the back of the eye.

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They went from not being able to read with their affected eye at all, to reading 60 to 80 words per minute.

Eight more patients will take part in this clinical trial.

Doctors need to be sure it is safe. One concern is the transplanted cells could become cancerous, although there have been no such signs so far.

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"We hope this will lead to an affordable 'off-the-shelf' therapy that could be made available to NHS patients within the next five years."

More than 600,000 people have age-related macular degeneration in the UK. It's the leading cause of blindness and the third globally.

Both patients in the trial had "wet" age-related macular degeneration.

This form of the disease is caused by abnormal blood vessels growing through the retinal pigment epithelium and damaging the macula.

Dry age-related macular degeneration is more common and caused by the retinal pigment epithelium breaking down.

It is hoped the patch will be able to treat both forms of the disease.

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