A recent study in The Lancet showed that stem cell transplantation using reprogrammed stem cells led to significant, lasting improvements in vision for people with severely damaged corneas.

The study focused on four patients with limbal stem-cell deficiency (LSCD), a condition that causes blindness due to corneal scarring.

These patients received corneal cell transplants derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, a cutting-edge approach that appears to offer hope for people with this challenging condition.

Three of the four patients experienced major, sustained vision improvements lasting more than a year, while the fourth saw temporary benefits.

LSCD often requires a high-risk corneal transplant from a healthy donor or patient’s other eye, making this new procedure a promising option.

Developed by Dr. Kohji Nishida at Osaka University in Japan, the iPS-cell-based technique involves reverting healthy blood cells to an embryo-like state.

These cells are then used to create a transparent tissue sheet, which is applied to the damaged cornea. Four patients underwent the procedure between 2019 and 2020.

Encouragingly, none of the transplanted cells formed tumors or showed signs of immune rejection, even in the two patients who did not take immunosuppressive drugs.

All four patients reported immediate improvement in vision after the procedure, leading researchers to suggest that the transplanted cells may have stimulated their own cells to aid in corneal repair.

This breakthrough provides a promising new opportunity to restore vision to individuals with LSCD and may pave the way for further advances in stem cell-based eye treatments.