Researchers at Queen’s University in Belfast are doing important work, looking at a new approach that could help to save the sight of diabetes sufferers across the world. The stem cell research could vastly improve the wellbeing of the millions of people in the world who suffer from diabetes and diabetes-related sight conditions.
The condition is known as Diabetic Retinopathy, and occurs when the high blood sugar that frequently occurs in diabetics causes blood vessels in both eyes to leak or become blocked. This then harms the retina in the eyes and causes impairment in vision. If it is left untreated, it can – and does – cause blindness in many diabetes sufferers.
Scientists are looking at creating treatments via stem cell research in a study known as REDDSTAR, which stands for Repair of Diabetic Damage by Stromal Cell Administration, and consists of taking cells from donors, altering them in a laboratory and then re-introducing them to the patient in order to help repair the eye’s blood vessels.
There is currently an extreme shortage of treatments available which can help to halt or reverse Diabetic Retinopathy, and there are no treatments on the market at all which treat the complication at the same time as improving wellness by stabilising glucose levels in the body to deal with the cause of the problem.
Experts from all over the world are, therefore, involved in this important study which could have a profound effect on how diabetics are treated and reduce the incidences of vision loss in the diabetic field. Together, the researchers are isolating a very specific population of stem cells found in the bone marrow in the human body and are then delivering them to the area in the body where diabetes has had a detrimental effect, in the hope that repair will take place.
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