Life Science log

The light-sensitive rod cells partially restored the sight of mice born with night blindnessScientists have improved the eyesight of mice born with night blindness by injecting healthy light-sensitive cells into their retinas. The work is the first demonstration that cell transplants can restore useful vision.Injections of the cells produced only modest changes in the animals' eyesight, but the results have raised hopes that a similar therapy might one day help reverse some forms of human blindness, such as age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness, which affects up to 15% of people over 75.In the study, researchers at University College London's Institute of Ophthalmology injected the precursors of light-sensitive cells - taken from newborn mice - into the eyes of adult mice with a genetic form of night blindness.Each jab delivered around 200,000 photoreceptor cells, of which 20,000 to 30,000 attached to the animals' retinas and made working neural connections. Despite the newly wi