First Evidence of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy’s Safety, Graft Survival, and Benefit to Patients

In an early phase clinical trial of 9 patients with Stargardt’s macular dystrophy and 9 with atrophic age-related macular degeneration, all of whom received subretinal transplants of retinal pigment epithelial cells derived from human embryonic stem cells, 72% of patients had patches of increasing subretinal pigmentation consistent with transplanted retinal pigment epithelium. Best-corrected visual acuity improved in 10 eyes, improved or remained the same in 7 eyes, and decreased by more than 10 letters in 1 eye. Vision-related quality-of-life measures increased for general and peripheral vision, and for near and distance activities. The results are published in The Lancet.