New hope for repairing eye damage once thought untreatable

Good news!

"A ... clinical trial of a procedure that took stem cells from a healthy eye and transplanted them into a damaged eye safely restored corneal surfaces in 14 patients who were followed for 18 months. 

The stem cell treatment for blinding cornea injuries — called cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cells, or CALEC ... It consists of removing stem cells from a healthy eye with a biopsy, expanding them into a cellular tissue graft in a novel manufacturing process that takes two to three weeks, and then surgically transplanting the graft into the eye with a damaged cornea. ...

One limitation of this approach is that it is necessary for the patient to have only one involved eye so a biopsy can be performed to get starting material from the unaffected normal eye. ...

The procedure remains experimental and is currently not offered ... at any U.S. hospital, and additional studies will be needed before the treatment is submitted for federal approval. ..."

New hope for repairing eye damage once thought untreatable — Harvard Gazette "Stem cell therapy safely restores cornea’s surface in clinical trial"