gms | German Medical Science

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.