The eyes have it: scientists grow lenses from stem cells

Yahoo – AFP, Mariëtte Le Roux, March 9, 2016

The cornea and lens must be transparent to work properly and stem cell treatment
may replace the need for surgery to replace parts that become opaque (AFP
Photo/Scott Olson)

Paris (AFP) - People suffering vision loss may one day have new corneas and lenses grown from their own cells, and be spared the invasive transplants required today, according to research published Wednesday.

In papers published in the journal Nature, a research team said they had managed to engineer corneas from stem cells in the lab, while another regenerated lenses inside the human eye.

"These two studies illustrate the remarkable regenerative and therapeutic potential of stem cells," wrote Julie Daniels of the University College London Institute of Opthalmology, who analysed the work in a paper also carried by Nature.

To work perfectly, the cornea and lens must be absolutely transparent. Sometimes, due to disease or ageing, these become opaque and need to be replaced with a donor or artificial transplant.

Such procedures are not foolproof, and in some cases the transplants are rejected by the recipient's body.

Stem cells offer hope as they can be taken from the patient's own body, thereby limiting rejection risk.

Stem cells are primitive cells that, as they mature, differentiate into the various specialised cells that make up the different organs.

Until a few years ago, the only way to obtain stem cells was to harvest them from human embryos, a controversial practice as it required the destruction of the embryo.

But now scientists have developed induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, which are mature cells turned back to an earlier, versatile state from which they can re-diversify.

To remove and replace parts of the eye, the current surgical method leaves

an incision which can easily become infected (AFP Photo/Mohamed Abdiwahab)

Minimally invasive

For the first study, scientists in the United States and China developed a new way to remove and replace damaged eye lenses in people with cataracts.

The current surgical method leaves a large incision which can easily become inflamed.

In the new procedure, a team extracted the lens through a much smaller hole than the existing procedure requires, and also left behind many more naturally-occurring, lens-creating stem cells called LECs. These were stimulated into building a new lens.

The method was successful in rabbits and macaques, and later in 12 human children.

"Each year, more than 20 million cataract patients worldwide undergo treatment with less extraction and artificial... implantation," wrote the study authors.

Yet the current procedure "inadvertently destroys the integrity of the lens capsule and the very LECs that hold the regenerative key to lens restoration," they said.

"(W)e have developed a new, minimally invasive surgical method that allows regeneration of a functional lens."

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness in the world.

Dusko Ilic, a lecturer in stem cell science at King's College London, said the study was "one of the finest achievements in the field of regenerative medicine until now".

For the second paper, researchers in Japan and Cardiff used human iPSCs to create eye cells which they grew into healthy corneas in a lab dish and implanted into rabbits.

This achievement, too, was hailed, though experts pointed out the method remained too expensive and experimental to be a viable treatment just yet.

"Whether either of the reported therapies will lead to cornea or lens transparency that can be maintained in the long term remains uncertain," wrote Daniels.

Related Article:

"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)

"... DNA is a Dynamic Molecule, not a static one.

Humanity is stuck in the 3D portion of their biological thinking. In your 3-D life, you simply accept the chemistry you're given. You act as though the three percent gene producing part is all there is. You believe it is a chemical protocol that is unchangeable and simply "you." You don't see it for the way it's designed. It's dynamic and always has been. It's not set, but will continue to simply repeat what it does unless there is another quantum influence on it.

Therefore you live with the 3 percent as though it were all there is, and since it just "came with your body" and seems to control everything, you never talk to it. Many of you come in with pre-dispositions based upon the karma which is put upon you from your past lives. You don't come in clean [without karmic energy]. Instead, you arrive with pre-dispositions, fears and phobias. Some are positive. Perhaps you come in as a prodigy continuing your last life... the 8-year-old who can paint like a master and do brushstrokes that take 30 years to develop. What does that tell you about what must be in the DNA?

Perhaps you come in as the composer, the pianist, the prodigy, the violinist, just waiting until your hands can go on the fingerboard or can reach up and fret the notes. Perhaps you come in knowing how to play the piano, just waiting for your hands to get big enough to do what you used to do... without any lessons. How do you explain that, dear ones? The answer is that all this is contained in the dynamic quantum instruction sets of your DNA... the part you never talk to it.

Cell Division - a static process?

Let me take you to the cellular division process. We've said this before, but you need to hear this to understand how it works. A cell is ready to divide. The Human body is designed to rejuvenate... all tissue. You've been told that there's some tissue that does not rejuvenate, but that is incorrect. It all rejuvenates at different speeds at different times and in different ways. It rejuvenates. So now you know that the Human body is designed to live a long time. Unfortunately, the energy that you have created on this planet and what you've gone through, has beat it up. You don't live much more than 80 years. That was not the design.

The Biblical personalities were sometimes prophets and sometimes masters and sometimes just there... and lived for hundreds of years. Did they really? Or perhaps this is that just a metaphor? Did they get that right in the Bible without a error in transcription? I'm going to tell you the truth. It's very accurate. Thousands of years ago you lived a very long time, Lemurian. If you knew your lifespan, you'd gasp. But not anymore. Instructions have been given over time to DNA, literally, by the energy of the planet... en energy that you have created through consciousness.

A cell divides. Right before it divides, it needs the blueprint to clone itself. The blueprint is available from the stem cell. The stem cell gets its information from the quantum part of the DNA, which has never changed since you were born. It's remained static, since nothing has ever changed it... and the fact that you don't believe it's changeable and have just accepted aging. There's not a conscious effort to do anything with it, and it just lays there like it always did.

The diving cell "talks" to the stem cell and says, "Do the same thing you always did? Change anything?" And the stem cell talks to the cell that is dividing, saying, "Make another one just the same." Then you rejuvenate just like the last one, accepting everything you received when you were born. ..."