Latest Retinitis pigmentosa Stories

Electronic eye implanted at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia mimics human retinaA 50-year-old New York woman who was diagnosed with a progressive blinding disease at age 13 was implanted with an experimental electronic eye implant that has partially restored her vision. A team led by Dr. Lucian V. Del Priore at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center performed the June 26 surgery -- the first case of its kind in New York.The first treatment aimed at restoring...

Retinal prosthesis and fetal tissue transplant show promise in human studiesTwo experimental treatments, a retinal prosthesis and fetal tissue transplant, restored some vision to people with blinding eye diseases. The findings, presented at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news on brain science and health, may lead to new treatments for the blind. Researchers also reported that an engineered protein restored...

Lions Eye Institute for Transplant & Research Sets Sights on Advances in Macular Degeneration and Glaucoma TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Real-time biomedical studies of factors leading to vision impairment are now possible through the world's largest ocular research center at Lions Eye Institute for Transplant & Research. As the first research center in the world to be directly combined with an eye bank, the Ocular Research Center provides a repository of healthy...

A new study reports that transplanted pigment-containing visual cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) successfully preserved structure and function of the specialized light-sensitive lining of the eye (known as the retina) in an animal model of retinal degeneration. The findings, published by Cell Press in the October 2nd issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, represent an exciting step towards the future use of cell replacement therapies to treat devastating degenerative eye...

A South Jersey man says his eyesight is returning, weeks after doctors at Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia implanted electrodes behind his left eye. Michael Adler, 49, began losing his sight as a child, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Tuesday. Recently, when he was sitting in church he saw what he described as an odd white glow -- which turned out to be an open hymnal. Every day, I can make out more than I could the day before, he told the newspaper after tests at the University of...

BOSTON, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- A high-tech device that expands the visual field of patients with tunnel vision has passed a collision test in a walking simulator, according to scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute, in a study published in the September issue of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. The study found that patients wearing this innovative device, consisting of a tiny camera, pocket-sized computer and a transparent computer display on a pair of glasses, were...

A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health has successfully grown multiple types of retina cells from two types of stem cells "” suggesting a future in which damaged retinas could be repaired by cells grown from the patient's own skin.Even sooner, the discovery will lead to laboratory models for studying genetically linked eye conditions, screening new drugs to treat those conditions and understanding the development of the human eye.A...

TOKYO, Aug. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- We are pleased to announce that subject enrollment for the phase 2 clinical study of 0.15% UF-021 (generic name; isopropyl unoprostone; active ingredient of Rescula(R) eye-drops) in patients with retinitis pigmentosa has been completed. We submitted the notification of the clinical trial in August 2008. Enrollment in the phase 2 study began at six clinical sites in late December 2008 and was completed on August 3, 2009. The clinical study has progressed with...

U.S. researchers said on Wednesday that a year after receiving gene therapy for a condition that causes total blindness by age 30, three people continue to see better and one has improved enough to read the digital numbers on a clock, Reuters reported. Doctors involved in the experiment reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that improvements in the vision of the three volunteers, who were all in their 20s and legally blind, has not deteriorated over time.One of the subjects has even...

People with poor eyesight caused by diseases often can be helped with various vision aids, a U.S. newsletter says. Experts at the Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource say such low vision isn't just the normal trouble people have reading small print as they get older. It's limited vision caused by macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa or other eye diseases. A low vision specialist can help patients find the vision aids that will best serve them,...