gms | German Medical Science

26. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Retinologischen Gesellschaft

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Retinologie

27.09.2013, Hamburg

Perspectives of stem cell therapy

Meeting Abstract

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  • Tim U. Krohne - Bonn, Germany

Retinologische Gesellschaft. 26. Jahrestagung der Retinologischen Gesellschaft. Hamburg, 27.-27.09.2013. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2013. Doc13rg03

doi: 10.3205/13rg03, urn:nbn:de:0183-13rg030

Veröffentlicht: 20. August 2013

© 2013 Krohne.
Dieser Artikel ist ein Open Access-Artikel und steht unter den Creative Commons Lizenzbedingungen (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.de). Er darf vervielfältigt, verbreitet und öffentlich zugänglich gemacht werden, vorausgesetzt dass Autor und Quelle genannt werden.


Gliederung

Text

Stem cell medicine has recently entered the phase of first clinical trials. The eye possesses unique properties that may make it an ideal target for stem cell treatments. This is reflected by the fact that all current pluripotent stem cell trials worldwide are in the field of ophthalmology, mainly for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration and Stargardt’s disease. While most of these trials employ embryonic stem cells, the recently developed technique of deriving induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) from the patient’s own skin or blood cells offers the intriguing prospect of generating autologous retinal cell grafts for transplantation, thus minimizing the risk of graft rejection. In the wake of these scientific clinical research efforts and their increasing media coverage, a growing number of commercial providers offer unproven and costly stem cell therapies for ophthalmological diseases. Knowledge of the current state of preclinical and clinical research on stem cells facilitates informed patient counseling regarding current and future therapeutic applications of stem cells in ophthalmology.