

Voilà une nouvelle très intéressante.


L'un des futurs traitements possibles du kératocone (avant la thérapie liée à la génétique): incorporer des cellules nouvelles saines dans les zones de la cornée endommagées.
Stem Cells Used To Enhance Vision
POSTED: 2:26 pm EDT August 6, 2004
UPDATED: 2:49 pm EDT August 6, 2004
Eye injuries, infections and even wearing contact lenses can cause a certain type of vision loss.
Most of us are born with a set amount of cells that keep our vision from becoming cloudy. Sometimes, those cells die, which will prevent people from being able to see clearly.
A procedure called limbal stem cell graft actually puts new cells onto the eye, and has given Stanley Shivak back something he thought he’d lost forever – clear sight.
Shivak suffered from an eye condition that scarred his cornea, which led to severely blurred vision.
"A lot of times I could recognize people only by their voice, up until you got right up on top of me, you know," he said.
The cornea of the eye serves as a protective windshield, protected by limbal cells that keep it clear.
"It's like your windshield getting completely cloudy and nothing to fix it with,” Dr. Victor Perez of the Cleveland Clinic said of the condition. “So in those patients, the only way to fix that problem is by taking and putting new stem cells, or limbal stem cells, on the windshield."
Perez first takes the stem cells from a donor eye, and removes the scar tissue from the patient’s cornea. After that, the cells are grafted onto the patient’s cornea.
The procedure takes at least an hour, but the patient will have to take drugs for a year after to ensure their body doesn’t reject the cells.
"Like in anything else in medicine, you have to, you know, balance risk and benefits,” Perez said.
Perez is working in the lab to find an easier and more effective way to prevent the rejection. He also added that in cases like Shivak’s, the success rate of this type of procedure is in the 70-75 percent range.
Several months after the procedure, Shivak has no problems reading his morning paper.
"There's awful lot of beautiful things in this world that's out there to see. I feel wonderful,” he said.
Si cette technique peut fonctionner, alors toute une nouvelle thérapie s'offre pour les patients atteints de kératocone!


Philippe