Japan: iPS Neuroretinal Sheet Transplant Surgery: Reconstruction of Central Nervous System
Kobe Eye Center Hospital:
“Neuroretinal sheet” made from iPS cells
Kobe City Eye Center Hospital (Chuo-ku, Kobe City) has decided to carry out transplant surgery (clinical research) this fall.
The treatment aimed at reconstructing the physiological circuit of the central nervous system is positioned as the “honmaru” of regenerative medicine for the eye, and is the first in the world.
Target of “retinitis pigmentosa”:
This clinical study has already been approved by a specialized subcommittee of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
The transplant target is patients with “retinitis pigmentosa”.
The photoreceptor cells of the retina that sense light
I died from the surroundings and my field of vision narrowed,
The last is a disease that leads to blindness
It is estimated that there are about 40,000 patients in the country. There is no established cure.
Check safety:
The main purpose of this surgery is to confirm that it will not be rejected and will become established and will not become cancerous.
The safety will be confirmed over about a year, and the functional aspect will continue to be observed for several more years.
Patients who were diagnosed with the disease decades ago were transplanted.
It is said that there is a high possibility of blindness as the condition progresses.
Transplant surgery method:
In surgery, “progenitor cells” just before becoming photoreceptor cells made from healthy human iPS cells are used.
Insert 1 to 3 neuroretinal sheets (1 mm in diameter and 0.2 mm in thickness) under the retina.
Adult retina:
The adult retina is a thousand and several hundred square meters.
The area to be transplanted this time is about a few percent.
Based on the results of this clinical study, the hospital will proceed with further research.
iPS cells, eye clinical study:
In 2014, RIKEN transplanted retinal pigment epithelium prepared from iPS cells to a patient with an intractable disease called “exudative age-related macular degeneration.”
Kobe Shimbun NEXT | General |
https://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sougou/202009/sp/0013698633.shtml