[HN Gopher] Stem cell therapy trial reverses "irreversible" dama...
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Stem cell therapy trial reverses "irreversible" damage to cornea
Author : 01-_-
Score : 193 points
Date : 2025-03-09 06:23 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (newatlas.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (newatlas.com)
| nashashmi wrote:
| > The new study ... investigated a new treatment called
| cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cells (CALEC). This
| involves removing stem cells from a patient's uninjured eye,
| growing their population in the lab for a few weeks, then
| surgically transplanting them into the injured eye.
|
| 14 patients tested. 79% reported healing in 12 months.
| aetherson wrote:
| Note here that "complete success" doesn't seem to necessarily
| mean recovery of vision, just some kinds of testing of corneal
| health. The article vaguely says that "most" patients had some
| improvement of vision. I couldn't quickly find discussion of
| this in the actual study, but the study claims success in
| proving safety and suggests further investigation is necessary
| to show therapeutic efficacy.
| Chance-Device wrote:
| This is an important point. It looks like they didn't
| directly make any measurements of vision, just biological
| markers of corneal health.
|
| That doesn't mean that vision _didn't_ improve. It's just a
| bit odd that if it did, they wouldn't have quantified it and
| added that to this paper.
| momento wrote:
| If you read the article, they clearly test vision in the
| patients.
|
| >the majority of patients regained some sight, with some
| advancing from legally blind to low vision.
| javiramos wrote:
| Can't comment on the technical quality of this paper but wanted
| to highlight that the research was funded by the NIH which our
| government is currently chaotically gutting.
|
| Link to paper:
| https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56461-1.pdf
| AnthonBerg wrote:
| Thank you!
| wtk wrote:
| My mom is 76 and she had a virus ruin one of corneas. I wish this
| was already a common practice but I doubt she will be able to
| benefit from this.
|
| If your eye is irritated and redness doesn't go away for days -
| visit your doctor.
| iknowstuff wrote:
| Whoa thats wild. Did they identify the virus?
| underlipton wrote:
| Tangentially-related: the recurrent corneal erosion that I've
| been managing (painfully and unsuccessfully) for a decade has
| finally seen some measure of remission after I started self-
| treating with Fingerprick Autologous Blood. It's what it says on
| the tin: I use a blood testing fingerprick to draw a few drops of
| blood, which I insert under my eyelid. Blink. Done. Not even a
| month and half with a bandage contact lens helped as much. It's a
| little frustrating that years of dealing with far-flung
| ophthalmologists and expensive eye ointments that make things
| worse (Muro 128 costs more than printer ink) could have been
| preempted with a application of a substance that's already inside
| me.
| iknowstuff wrote:
| Damn that's metal as fuck.
| bluechair wrote:
| Not for the faint of heart but look at figure 3 of the original
| paper: * https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56461-1
|
| Amazing!
| yapyap wrote:
| Although I understand it doesn't mean this is even nearly useable
| for a real thing rn, that's fucking dope.
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