According to The Japan Times, a group of Japanese scientists from the Riken Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, located in the city of Wako, was the first in the world to transplant cells grown from donor pluripotent cells of a recipient into a patient with age-related retinal macular degeneration. The uniqueness of the operation lies in the fact that earlier such interventions were carried out only using the patients' own tissues.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a disease in which the central retina, the macula, is affected. Macula plays one of the key roles in the formation of vision. Age-related macular degeneration is a very common cause of decreased vision in people over 60 years of age. Because only central vision is affected, people rarely lose their ability to see completely, but AMD can make it difficult to read, drive, or do other work that requires seeing fine details. The risk of AMD increases with age and reaches almost 30% by age 75.
As already mentioned, earlier transplants were performed only with the help of an autograft (using the patient's own tissues), however, the use of donor cells grown in a special medium is much more profitable both from an economic point of view and in terms of time: the operation is much cheaper and requires at times less time. The first patient on whom the new technology was applied was a resident of Japan over 60 years old. The operation took about an hour: at this time, 0.05 milliliters of fluid was placed in the patient's right eye, containing about 250,000 donor cells. Preliminary evidence suggests that the operation went well and was crowned with success, but victory can only be celebrated in a few years. Now during the year the patient will be monitored by doctors,and over the next three years, he will have regular medical examinations.
VLADIMIR KUZNETSOV