I Can See Clearly Now

More fantastic news on the Adult Stem Cell front. First is the news that contact lenses cultured with stem cells has restored sight to three people in less than one month!

THREE Australians have had their sight restored thanks to their own stem cells and ordinary contact lenses.

Although the novel technique was used to reverse blinding corneal disease, it promises to be a quick, painless and cheap treatment for other visual disorders. It may even be useful for repairing damaged skin, the researchers reported today in the journal Transplantation...

According to team member Stephanie Watson - an opthalmic surgeon with Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital - two of the three patients were legally blind in the treated eye; they can now read big letters on the eye chart. The third could read the top few rows of the chart but is now able to pass the vision test for a driving license.

While it is way too early to tell if the correction will hold, this is extremely promising research and the most important part is where these stem cells came from...

To obtain the stem cells, Dr Watson took less than a millimeter of tissue from the side of each patients' cornea. Working with colleagues at POWH and UNSW, he cultured stem cells from the tissue in extended wear contact lenses.

Dr Watson then cleaned the surface of the patients' corneas and inserted the lenses. Within 10 to 14 days the stem cells began to attach to the cornea, replenishing damaged cells. Satisfied that the stem cells were doing their job, Dr Watson removed the lenses and the patients have been seeing with new eyes for the last 18 months.

Another win for non-emb ryonic stem cell treatments came out of China as reported by the BBC.

Chinese scientists have given cells from adult pigs the ability to turn into any tissue in the body, just like embryonic stem cells.

They hope the breakthrough could aid research into human disease, and the breeding of animals for organ transplants for humans.

It may also enable the development of pigs that are resistant to diseases such as swine flu.

While I am not fond of the idea of breeding animals for human organ transplants, this is still great news. If we can breed pigs resistant to diseases like swine flu, we can make the world better for both humans and animals. However the downside of human/porcine transplants is still a wee bit troubling.

Dr Sebastien Farnaud, science director of the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research, said: "Persisting with highly speculative research that would see us use sentient animals as little more that living organ grow-bags, is not only ethically unsupportable but also scientifically dubious.

"Creating pig stem cells does not necessarily remove the risk of organ rejection but even more worrying is the risk of infecting patients and the wider public with pig viruses."

While the advocates of human embryonic stem cell research are still talking "promise", these two articles give us more evidence of the realities of NON-embryonic stem cell treatments. It is past time to give up on the pipe dream and latch on to the reality of ethical treatments!