Hey Eki,

Don’t be discouraged. I know you very closely and I also know that you
will come out of this very soon.

Why don’t you inquire about Embryonic stem cells about which people
have shared on accessindia previously. I am pasting below the old
article. I hope it will help you.

Embryonic stem cells improve vision for two womenBy Elizabeth Cohen,
Senior Medical Correspondent
January 24, 2012 -- Updated 0321 GMT (1121 HKT)
Embryonic stem cell breakthrough
Source:
CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
This is the first documented time these controversial cells have helped someone
During the study, stem cells derived from an embryo were injected into
retinal tissue
Researcher emphasizes that the results are preliminary
(CNN) -- Two women with untreatable eye diseases said they had
dramatic improvements in their vision after injections of human
embryonic stem cells, making it the first documented time these
controversial cells have helped someone.

"This is a big step forward for regenerative medicine, said Dr. Steven
Schwartz at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute. "It's nowhere near a
treatment for vision loss, but it's a signal that embryonic stem-cell
based strategies may work."

Schwartz added several caveats - that the study was preliminary, only
in two patients, and that it's difficult to measure vision in
low-vision patients. But even so he was "thrilled and excited" about
the study.

Schwartz and his colleagues published their study in The Lancet. For
each patient, stem cells derived from an embryo were injected into
their retinal tissue. They had to take anti-rejection drugs for a
short period so their eyes wouldn't reject the foreign tissue.

 Dr. Steven Schwartz and a 51-year-old patient who says her vision has
improved after stem cell treatment.Before her stem cell surgery in
July, Sue Freeman, 78, couldn't take a walk, go shopping or cook by
herself because of macular degeneration, a disease that affects
millions of Americans and for which there is no cure.

"I couldn't pour a glass of water without spilling it on the counter," she said.

Now, after surgery in one eye, she cooks, shops and walks on her own.
"I can even read my own writing now," she added. "And I've noticed
other things. My husband and I were walking around one of our rental
properties and I noticed scuff marks on the wall. I told him we need
to fix this, and he said, 'You're seeing things better, but that's
making my honey-do list even longer.'"

Schwartz, chief of the retina division at Jules Stein, emphasized that
the results are preliminary and it is possible the patients' vision
could get worse again. Researchers will now try the procedure in 22
more patients in research centers in the United States.

The second patient in the study, a 51-year-old woman who preferred not
to use her name, said she first noticed a change in her vision a few
weeks after surgery when she woke up one morning and looked at an
armoire across her bedroom.

"It has a lot of detailed carvings and I thought wow, I was missing
those before," she said. "I thought, is this for real?"

Later, she noticed she could see the knobs on her stove, which she
couldn't see before at a certain distance.

Before having the surgery, the patient couldn't read any of the
letters on an eye chart with extra large letters for people with
vision problems, but after the surgery, she could read five letters on
the chart, according to the study. Before the surgery, she couldn't
see how many fingers an examiner was holding up in front of her face,
but afterward she could.

In a commentary in The Lancet, Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the
Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine,
warned that the report was preliminary, in only two patients, and with
a short-term follow-up.

"But the results are impressive, especially considering the
progressive nature of both diseases," he added.

The stem cells were derived from an embryo created in a fertility
clinic by a couple that chose not to use it to create a pregnancy,
said Gary Rabin, chief executive officer of Advanced Cell Technology,
who said the couple donated the embryo to the company.

According to Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at Advanced
Cell Technology and a co-author of the study, the embryo was destroyed
after the stem cells were derived, but in the future, doctors will be
able to derive stem cells from an embryo without destroying it.

This is the first time a scientific study has been published about the
results of an embryonic stem cell trial, but not the first time these
cells have been used. Geron became the first company to get FDA
approval for human trials using cells grown from human embryonic stem
cells in 2009, but abandoned that effort for financial reasons in
2011.

Many who consider an embryo to be human life have objected to
embryonic stem cell research. In his commentary, Atala said induced
pluripotent stem cells, which can be made without destroying an
embryo, may also be useful. These cells, which have been derived from
skin, can be derived directly from a patient, making anti-rejection
drugs unnecessary.

Funding support for this study came from the CCMT, the Foundation
Fighting Blindness, the National Institutes of Health (National Center
for Research Resources grants UL1-RR-024134, IR21EY020662, and
1R01EY019014-01A2), Research to Prevent Blindness, Hope for Vision,
the Paul and Evanina Mackall Foundation Trust at the Scheie Eye
Institute, anonymous donors, the Italian Telethon Foundation, and the
F.M. Kirby Foundation. Dr. High is an Investigator of the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, which also provided support.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/business/stem-cell-study-may-show-advance.html

http://tinyurl.com/8a7wvee

Best wishes for your future life.

Regards,

Nazrul.


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