On 10 September, the scientific journal, Nature, revealed that a team of Japanese scientists would soon be attempting to treat a patient suffering from age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) with iPS cells (Gènéthique press review on September 11th, 2014).
Announced as imminent, the iPS cells were implanted last Friday. The patient suffering from ARMD is a 70 year-old female, explained the medical team at the Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation (Ibri) in Kobe, led by Masayo Takahashi, project director at the Riken Institute (Kobe).
The aim of the world’s first operation of this kind was “to check the safety” of the procedure and, above all, to ensure that malignant tumours do not develop and that the patient’s condition obviously improves.
ARMD is the primary cause of blindness in over 55 year-olds in industrialised countries.
AFP 12/09/2014