By Susan Okie
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 13, 2000; Page A01

Surgeons in Taiwan and the United States have restored vision to people with previously untreatable eye damage by transplanting tissue grown in the laboratory.

In a pair of new studies, researchers report that the transplants improved vision in all six Taiwanese patients and in 10 of 14 American patients treated, although doctors caution that the procedure's long-term success is uncertain.

Researchers may be able to adapt the method to grow tissue for transplantation to other "wet" body surfaces, such as the lining of the lungs, bladder and intestines, said Ivan R. Schwab, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of California at Davis Medical School who led the U.S. study.

"We think this is the beginning of a very exciting change in terms of how we manage surface disease of many kinds, not just in the eye," he said.

 

Both groups of researchers removed cells known as stem cells from the limbus, a circular area on the eye's surface that surrounds the cornea, the clear, window-like tissue over the iris and pupil. They induced the cells to multiply on a piece of amniotic membrane, the thin covering that envelops a fetus in the womb. (see 2. above) 
In 16 cases, the stem cells used to grow the tissue were taken from one of the patient's own eyes; in four, they were obtained from the eye of a family member.