Cells from Eyes of Dead ‘May Give Sight to Blind’

ByConnor Hodde

Cells taken from the donated eyes of dead people may be able to give sight to the blind, researchers suggest. Tests in rats, reported in Stem Cells Translational Medicine, showed the human cells could restore some vision to completely blind rats.  Donated corneas are already used to improve some people’s sight, but the team at the Institute for Ophthalmology, at UCL, extracted a special kind of cell from the back of the eye. These Muller glia cells might be able to help patients with disorders such as macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa.

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