Best-Eye-Vitamin.Com Ocular Health News Blog: November 2008 Best Eye Vitamin

"...my dry macular degeneration hasn't progressed at all. ."

-R.W.

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-J.H..
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Can the Retina Heal Itself?

For the first time ever, scientists have regrown cells in live mammals.

OK, the mammals were mice, but if you believe the results, this is a real breakthrough.

In macular degeneration and many other age related diseases, it is assumed that treatment must either be aimed at preventing or aggressively treating the disease. No one assumed that the patient could heal himself or herself.

Lining the inside of the eyeball, the retina converts light into nerve impulses to the brain. "This type of cell exists in all the retinas of all vertebrates," said Tom Reh of the University of Washington, "so the cellular source for regeneration is present in the human retina."

Reh suggested that further research might lead to new treatments for human vision loss from retina-damaging diseases, such as macular degeneration. The research will be detailed the last week of November 2008 in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers injected a substance into the retina to eliminate both ganglion cells and amacrine cells. Then by injecting the eye with growth factors and insulin, they were able to stimulate the Müller glia cells to start dividing and begin to proliferate across the retina.

Now keep in mind that it is not rods and cones (the sensory cells) or retinal pigment epithelial cells (the cells that provide nourishment to the retina) that were able to replicate.

Nevertheless, it is new and exciting news.

Labels: degeneration, macular, regeneration, retina