Wisconsin team grows retina cells from skin-derived stem cells

[Jeannine]

Wisconsin team grows retina cells from skin-derived stem cells

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/wisconsin-team-grows-retina-cells-skin-derived-stem-cells-24390.html

[michaelsdad00]

Jeannine,
Thank you for posting this article!
David

[michaelsdad00]

Friday, January 29, 2010

Scientists at Bascom Palmer are investigating ways to regenerate injured or diseased eye components through the use of stem cells. The genesis was the discovery a few years ago by University of Toronto scientists that fish have stem cells on the margin of their retinas that are energized when needed to repair the eye, according to Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer. Stem cells can be obtained from the patient's own skin, muscle or the eye itself and can be used to repair the eye's photoreceptors (rods and cones) and the retinal ganglion cells, Goldberg said.

"The mantra has always been once those cells are gone your visual deficit is permanent. That mantra is changing," Goldberg said.

Bascom physicians can take biopsy-size pieces of stem cells from the peripheral area of the retina, transform the cells in a laboratory into the specific cell type needed and then use nanoparticles to deliver the differentiated cell to the specific location within the eye where it is needed, Goldberg said. The cells can be manipulated into becoming photoreceptor cells or retinal pigment epithelium cells. Those cells can be damaged by retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration.

Alfonso also gave an update on construction at Bascom Palmer's Palm Beach Gardens' campus.

The institute is nearing completion of a 21,300-square-foot building there. The building will provide space for glaucoma research, an ophthalmic imaging and diagnostic center, an ocular microbiology laboratory, physician offices and more. For more information on Bascom Palmer, visit www.bpei.med.miami.edu.