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http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60D16FF3B5F0C768DDDAD0894DB404482

Health & Fitness | April 15, 2003, Tuesday
Stem Cell Transplants Offer New Hope in Some Cases of Blindness

By GWEN KINKEAD (NYT) 1710 words
Late Edition - Final , Section F , Page 7 , Column 1

LEAD PARAGRAPH - A little-known operation restores hope for people who lose sight from chemical or heat burns of the eye or certain rare diseases. The procedure, 50 to 100 percent effective in healing corneal damage, is used worldwide, including Iran, where it helps restore sight for victims of Iraqi mustard gas attacks.

A variation on corneal transplants, the surgery grafts stem cells from a donor or a patient's good eye to the injured eye. The cells are from the limbus, a rim around the cornea. The cells resheath the cornea's surface, the 50-micron-thick epithelium, to maintain it as a transparent window. When burns or disease wipe out the limbal stem cells, the epithelium clouds over with scar tissue, causing blindness.



 

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