Moscow-Sana
Scientists at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have succeeded in growing retinal cells for the first time in the world.
In a study they conducted with researchers from Harvard University and published in the Izvestia newspaper, Russian scientists explained that this new technique was tested on laboratory mice and reached the possibility of these cells surviving for a whole year.
Levgeny Kegels, a researcher in the Genetic Engineering Laboratory at the Moscow Institute, said that during their experiments, the researchers used different classes of mice, including mice suffering from a certain type of glaucoma, others suffering from high pressure in the eye, another group whose special nerve nodes were removed, and newborn mice and tested the hypothesis of rapid coexistence. Of young ganglion cells in the developing retina and it turns out that the cells have merged and grown axons that would allow the eye to be connected to the brain.
Kegels indicated that it is possible to grow retinal cells in mice within three weeks. As for humans, scientists believe that the period will last from 50 to 100 days, and due to rare cases of rejection of the eye, it will be difficult to grow cell tissues for patients with glaucoma, so it is possible to establish a cell bank for such patients, however. Experts estimate that this technology will begin to be applied in clinical practice after about 10 years.
