Scientists led by stem cell pioneer Professor Robert Lanza has reported the first evidence for the long-term safety of retinal pigment epithelial cells derived from human embryonic stem cells in patients who took part in a trial. substantial improvements in vision were also recorded in almost half the treated patients, compared to no improvement in untreated patients.
This is the first time that clinical benefits have been demonstrated in the medium to long term in patients with any disese treated with hESC-derived cells, and is a major milestone in the development of the field of regenerative medicine. The trial focused on 18 patients with two different types of macular degeneration, Stargardt’s macular dystrophy and nine with dry atrophic age-related macular degeneration, that are common causes of blindness in adults and children and for which no effective treatments are currently available.