SCIENCE AND MEDICINE | health & wellness ||
Blindness is cancelled
Ophthalmologists, too, have high hopes for stem
cells. They are using the cells to try to stop loss of vision
for patients with macular degeneration, a malady that
strikes the retina and damages central vision. Moreover,
stem cells are used during corneal transplants; they
slow the rejection process and help preserve the trans-
plant. They are used in cell therapy if hormones and cy-
tostatics don’t work on certain patients. Efforts to create
an artificial retina are also in progress. Ophthalmologists
have already learned to grow pigmental epithelium, cul-
tivate cells, and plant and replant experimentally. True,
it’s still too early to talk about an artificial retina ready
for clinical use, but five or six of the world’s leading lab-
oratories are working on that problem.
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Tomorrow
The prospects for cell medicine are unlimited: stem
cells can be useful in treating wounds, burns, fractures,
autoimmune disorders, the consequences of strokes,
hepatitis, and other severe maladies. It’s important to
note that cell technologies have fundamentally
squeezed out the idea of cloning, because scientists
have realized that new organs can be obtained by other
means. They hope that in the future it will be possible
to grow organs for transplantation under laboratory con-
ditions, in which case the need for donor tissues and
organs would fall by the wayside: those that have been
grown from the patient’s own cells would take root with-
out risk of rejection. Experiments in that direction are in
full swing. Scientists from the University of Texas and
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