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Retinal Restoration
22 July 2014

Retinal Restoration

There’s currently no cure for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a group of inherited eye diseases that impair the retina’s ability to respond to light, resulting in gradual loss of vision. But now, researchers have used stem cells to develop a promising experimental treatment. First they reprogrammed skin cells from RP patients into stem cells to make patient-specific retinal cells for closer inspection. They found that mutations in a gene called MFRP disrupt the production of actin (red), a protein that provides scaffolding for retinal cells. When this structure doesn’t form properly (left), retinal cells don’t work very well. But when the team used a virus to smuggle in a working copy of MFRP, the structure was restored (right). And in mice with an RP-like condition, the treatment slowly improved vision. It's early days yet but these results show how patient-specific stem cells can kick start the development of tailor-made therapies.

Written by Daniel Cossins

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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