Scientists Have Discovered a Revolutionary New Way to Reverse Blindness

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div id="article-body" style="margin-top: 0px; position: relative; width: 830px;"> <figure class="article-image-container article-image-container-horizontal" itemprop="image" itemscope="" style="margin: 0px 0px 50px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="scientists, have, discovered, a, revolutionary, new, way, to, reverse, blindness, " class="photo-image-article-main" height="530" itemprop="contentUrl representativeOfPage" src="http://media3.mic.com/ODg4ODc5NTUwZSMvNk9BMFdlS1k4RmptcVAyZURmY29qR0txdjRVPS8weDE2OjIwNDh4MTMwOC84NDB4NTMwL3MzLmFtYXpvbmF3cy5jb20vcG9saWN5bWljLWltYWdlcy8yYjcyMGExNzg5MGQ4YjU0YjRhYWMxYjdlZjExMTcyYWZmODI4NWYxMGIzMjZhMTIwYzM1MmIyNDk1Y2E5YTE4LmpwZw==.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; min-width: 350px; vertical-align: middle; width: 830px;" width="840" /></span><figcaption class="article-image-caption" style="float: left; font-style: italic; margin-top: 7px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Scientists Have Discovered a Revolutionary New Way to Reverse Blindness</span></figcaption><figcaption class="artice-image-attribution" style="float: right; font-style: italic; margin-top: 7px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Image Credit: <a href="https://flic.kr/p/bA9bBH" style="text-decoration: none;">Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span data-mce-mark="1"></span><span data-mce-mark="1"><strong>The news:</strong> </span><span data-mce-mark="1">Scientists just regrew a human cornea.</span></span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span data-mce-mark="1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span data-mce-mark="1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Let that sink in for a minute.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span data-mce-mark="1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Besides potentially having the ability to restore sight to millions, the feat has another astounding component: The researchers did it with human stem cells.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span data-mce-mark="1">The scientists, a team hailing from Harvard, Boston Children's Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital and the VA Boston Healthcare System, published their </span><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13426.html" style="text-decoration: none;">findings</a><span data-mce-mark="1"> in the journal, Nature, on Wednesday.</span></span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span data-mce-mark="1">Researchers have been eyeing special stem cells with the ability to regenerate corneal tissue — the clear sheath that protects the eye and is responsible for </span><a href="http://www.nelsonbrain.com/content/goldstein01497_0495601497_02.01_chapter01.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;">two-thirds</a><span data-mce-mark="1"> of our vision — for years.</span></span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span data-mce-mark="1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><strong>But there was a problem:</strong> While the scientists knew they resided somewhere between the cornea and the whites of the eye, they couldn't find them.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span data-mce-mark="1">The corneal tissue "has inherent turnover capacity; the cells are being shed and being replaced continuously," </span><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/07/02/researchers-successfully-regrow-corneas-using-adult-human-stem-cells/" style="text-decoration: none;">said</a><span data-mce-mark="1"> lead researcher Markus Frank of Boston Children's Hospital. They were regenerating so quickly that the scientists couldn't track them down.</span></span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span data-mce-mark="1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Fortunately, the tissue is accompanied by a special marker molecule called ABCB5. The tiny molecule is what prevents the cells from dying — and it led the researchers straight to the cells they needed.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span data-mce-mark="1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Once they found the stem cells in human donors, the researchers extracted and transplanted them into blind mice whose cells had been removed. Soon, the mice had fully functioning, anatomically correct corneal tissue. And they could see again.</span></div> <div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><strong>Why it matters:</strong> Corneal tissue loss is one of the leading causes of blindness, and <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/" style="text-decoration: none;">300 million people</a>are visually impaired around the world. In the past, researchers have tried using tissue and cell transplants to help regenerate corneas, but they've had mixed results. This discovery could solve that problem.</span></div> <div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: white; font-family: ProximaNova-Regular, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px;"> <br /></div> </div> </div>

Scientists Have Discovered a Revolutionary New Way to Reverse Blindness

Scientists Have Discovered a Revolutionary New Way to Reverse Blindness Image Credit:  Flickr The news:   Scientists just regrew a human ...

Read more »