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A breakthrough stem cell
transplant has been carried out in Japan for a woman suffering from an
incurable eye illness. Japanese doctors say it’s the first-ever operation when
adult cells were used to repair the damaged organ, RT reports.
The two-hour surgery was completely successful, Japan’s
Nikkei newspaper reported. It came seven years after the Kyoto University
professor Shinya Yamanaka created induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) –
multifunctional stem cells that can be generated directly from adult tissues.
The research later won him the 2012 Nobel Prize.
In this case, the cells
were made from the patient’s skin, which prevents controversy over the use of
embryos.
The patient is in her 70s
and suffered from age-related macular degeneration, a disease when blood
vessels crowd the retina, entailing visual impairment and blindness.
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The surgery took place at
the Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation Hospital in Kobe, and was
carried out by Yasuo Kurimoto, the hospital's head of ophthalmology, and Masayo
Takahashi, the head of retinal regeneration projects at the Riken Centre for
Developmental Biology.
The patient is now
reportedly in stable condition, according to the hospital, and is set to be
discharged next week.
Due to the fact that so
many vision cells died, the doctors don’t expect a major improvement in her
eyesight – and if there is any, it’ll take a couple of years to show. However,
the surgery could slow down the spread of the disease.
The possible side effect
that concerns the scientists is that the implanted cells could become
cancerous, so the primary goal of the operation was to prove that stem cells
aren’t dangerous.
"We will have
succeeded if cancer does not develop after a year," Yasuo Kurimoto said.
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