Transplantation with immature retina and RPE improved vision

ATLANTA — A majority of patients treated with retinal transplantation using fetal tissue showed positive changes in their vision after 5 years, a surgeon showed here.

Norman D. Radtke

During Retina Subspecialty Day preceding the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting, Norman D. Radtke, MD, presented data on 10 patients with retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration, all of whom underwent this transplantation with immature retina and retinal pigment epithelium.

"The use of freshly harvested fetal tissue bypasses the difficulty of stem cells that need a complex combination of factors to grow into mature and functional retinal cells," he said. "Independently tested vision by ETDRS in retinitis pigmentosa and AMD patients showed variable, but measurable improvement in seven out of 10 patients."

Specifically, Dr. Radtke said six retinitis pigmentosa patients were tested and three improved while all four AMD patients improved.

He said no patients showed signs of clinical rejection and those transplantations that succeeded established a new blood-retina barrier.

"These results suggest that this approach to retinal transplantation could be a viable treatment to restore vision in retinal degeneration patients," Dr. Radtke concluded.