Study Could Save Sight Of Diabetes Sufferers

A team at Queen’s University in Belfast is working on a new project which could enable stem cells to save the sight of diabetes sufferers.

Diabetics can suffer from a condition caused by high blood sugar which blocks blood vessels in the eye and can lead to blindness.

But the new study, REDDSTAR (Repair of Diabetic Damage by Stromal Cell Administration) could see stem cells from donors isolated and expanded to be re-delivered to a patient and repair the blood vessels in the eye.

The €6m EU funded research is being carried out with NUI Galway and brings together experts from Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal and the US.

Professor Alan Stitt, Director of the Centre for Vision and Vascular Science in Queen’s and lead scientist for the project said: "The impact could be profound for patients, because regeneration of damaged retina could prevent progression of diabetic retinopathy and reduce the risk of vision loss.

"Currently available treatments for diabetic retinopathy are not always satisfactory. They focus on end-stages of the disease, carry many side effects and fail to address the root causes of the condition. A novel, alternative therapeutic approach is to harness adult stem cells to promote regeneration of the damaged retinal blood vessels and thereby prevent and/or reverse retinopathy.

"This new research project is one of several regenerative medicine approaches ongoing in the centre. The approach is quite simple: we plan to isolate a very defined population of stem cells and then deliver them to sites in the body that have been damaged by diabetes. In the case of some patients with diabetes, they may gain enormous benefit from stem cell-mediated repair of damaged blood vessels in their retina. This is the first step towards an exciting new therapy in an area where it is desperately needed."

(IT)