Apanel of the health and welfare ministry on June 26 approved the world's first clinical research to transplant human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which can grow into any type of human body tissue. The transplant is expected to be made next year to six patients suffering from age-related macular degeneration in the exudative form, a condition that may cause a sudden loss of vision due to retinal damage.
Mr. Shinya Yamanaka, a Kyoto University professor who co-won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his development of iPS cells, announced his discovery in 2007. The panel's approval came with an unprecedented speed. Too high expectations must not be placed on the clinical research, the main purpose of which is to confirm the safety of the transplant, not the effectiveness of the procedure in repairing macular degeneration.
The governmental scientific research institute Riken and the Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation won the panel's approval. The eye disease affects an estimated 700,000 people in Japan. Abnormal, easy-to-break blood vessels multiply in the retina, and bleeding from them damages the macula or the yellow spot in the center of a visual field. As a result, things seen in the center of a visual field appear deformed or blackened. In the worst cases, sufferers can go blind.
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