Experiments by a research team at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine led by James L. Funderburgh, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Ophthalmology, suggest that stem cell-based therapies might be an effective way to treat human corneal blindness and vision impairment due to scarring that occurs after infection, trauma and other eye problems.

In the study, mice with scarred and hazy corneas were injected with human adult corneal stem cells. After three months of injections, transparency was restored. “Our experiments indicate that after stem cell treatment, mouse eyes that initially had corneal defects looked no different than mouse eyes that had never been damaged,” Dr. Funderburgh said in a statement.

Read a full description of the study on MedPage Today ^[1].