StemCell Therapy

Age-related Macular Degeneration, or AMD, is a degenerative disease of the the Macula Lutea, represented in red, the central area of the retina. BSIP / UIG via Getty Images

Now researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa and the University of California, San Diego have crafted artificial retinas that can be implanted entirely inside the eye, which offer hope to those with macular degeneration.

The devices are only experimental prototypes with many years of additional research and development likely before they might be ready for commercial use. But

She's not alone in that assessment.

"This is definitely a game changer," Dr. Kapil Bharti, an investigator at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, Maryland who is not involved with the research, says. "Previous versions of these work in a very, very low-resolution range. Patients were practically still blind and incapacitated as far as everyday tasks were concerned. These promise that patients could become more independent."

When healthy, retinal cells transmit visual information to the brain. As these cells die off, AMD sufferers lose their central vision. The new prosthesis is designed to be implanted onto the back wall of the eye, where it absorbs light and transforms it into an electrical signal that stimulates the still-active retinal cells to restore vision.

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When the prosthesis was tested in rats, the animals' pupils constricted in response to exposure to light. The researchers were unable to determine how well the rats were able to see, if at all, but they noted that the animals' eyes continued to react to light more than six months after the implant was installed.

"We hope to replicate in humans the excellent results obtained in animal models," Pertile said. The team will conduct human trials later this year.

The findings were published in the journal

The researchers in San Diego have taken a different approach to solving AMD that they think can restore vision to resolutions as sharp as a healthy eye.

There, engineers have partnered with Nanovision Biosciences Inc. to

Images of individual nanowires and groups of nanowires. Each wire can produce an electric current when hit by light. UC San Diego

"We want to create a new class of devices with drastically improved capabilities to help people with impaired vision," Silva said.

The findings were reported in

Neither of the implants is able to restore color to vision yet, and Bharti has questions about the durability of organic eye implants. But, he says, "Those are things that can be easily worked out and can be done in the coming future. Overall, this is very exciting."

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