Stem-Cell Treatment for Blindness Moving Through Patient Testing (macular)

MIT Technology Review ^ | 04/17/2014 | Susan Young

[RoosterRedux]

A new treatment for macular degeneration is close to the next stage of human testing—a noteworthy event not just for the millions of patients it could help, but for its potential to become the first therapy based on embryonic stem cells.

This year, the Boston-area company Advanced Cell Technology plans to move its stem-cell treatment for two forms of vision loss into advanced human trials. The company has already reported that the treatment is safe (see “Eye Study Is a Small but Crucial Advance for Stem-Cell Therapy”), although a full report of the results from the early, safety-focused testing has yet to be published. The planned trials will test whether it is effective. The treatment will be tested both on patients with Stargardt’s disease (an inherited form of progressive vision loss that can affect children) and on those with age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss among people 65 and older.

The treatment is based on retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells that have been grown from embryonic stem cells. A surgeon injects 150 microliters of RPE cells—roughly the amount of liquid in three raindrops—under a patient’s retina, which is temporarily detached for the procedure. RPE cells support the retina’s photoreceptors, which are the cells that detect incoming light and pass the information on to the brain.

[dalereed]

“Would you rather be blind or eat a baby and see?”

I’ll eat a baby and see!!!!

[tet68]

that embryo is out there and likely never to be implanted and grown as a new life.

Aren’t there a lot of embryos that never get implanted?
Just asking.

[chaosagent]

Well, it was supposedly an ‘unused’ one. And do you really think they used the embryo without the permission of the parents?

From what I understand, to be sure that they get enough embryos to use, they create more than are needed. How long do they keep embryos after the parents no longer want or need them? What happens to them? Are they just kept forever?

[married21]

Yes, they are kept indefinitely, I think, until one day when they clean house. I think that was why the Octomom had them all implanted at once. She didn’t want any destroyed.

So, basically there are all these embryonic human beings in the freezer, and when the parents don’t want them, it is occasionally the case that they are adopted out. (I forget the name of the non-profit agency that was trying to make a go of that.) They are the same physically as the ones that are growing in wombs.

I have moral qualms about keeping human beings in the freezer indefinitely, so I think parents should be required to implant each embryo upon creation— no making extras, and no conceiving triplets and then “reducing” (aborting the weaker ones). From what I have read, ob-gyns are moving away from having any excess embryos.

As to whether an embryo was used without permission of its parents, I have no idea. I guess I was thinking they were using volunteer egg and sperm donors who agreed to participate in the study, not intact two-parent couples, or maybe they were paying for eggs, as has happened under unsavory circumstances in a couple of countries, so I’ve read.