Treatment Developed At UCSB Begins Clinical Trials

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a progressive inherited disease of the eye, in which the light-sensitive photoreceptor cells located in the retina degenerate. This results first in the loss of night and peripheral vision, eventually progressing to the loss of central vision and total blindness. It is the leading cause of inherited blindness in the developed world.

The disease, which affects approximately 1.5 million people in the world, has no cure, but thanks to a clinical trial that was based in part on research done at UC Santa Barbara, a new stem cell therapy may soon be available that protects photoreceptor cells from the damaging effects of the mutation. So far, four legally blind patients with RP have begun the trial.
 

Retina

News Date: 

Wednesday, August 26, 2015