Diane Joy Galos

Forget glasses, stem cells might now be the new prescription for clearer vision.

In a medical milestone, Japan has successfully used stem cell therapy to restore vision in patients suffering from severe blindness. 


The procedure, pioneered by researchers at Osaka University (OU), has proven to be the world’s first stem cell-based treatment for corneal blindness.

This breakthrough targets a rare condition called limbal stem-cell deficiency (LSCD), where the cornea’s vital stem cells fail to regenerate. 

When the limbal ring—responsible for replenishing the cornea’s outer layer is damaged, it leads to blindness and persistent pain.

Kohji Nishida, the ophthalmologist leading the project at OU, and his team enrolled in the project two women and two men between the ages of 39 and 72, by June 2019 and November 2020, all suffering from LSCD in both eyes. 

After transplanting epithelial sheets into the damaged corneas, the patients showed a marked reduction in scar tissue and some improvements in vision.

While three patients have seen lasting improvements, one patient experienced a reversal in their vision after a year. 

The results have raised hope for future treatments but still require further trials.

“This is an exciting development,” says Kapil Bharti, a stem-cell researcher at the National Eye Institute in the United States.

The treatment, published in scientific journal, The Lancet, has not caused any major side effects. 

None of the recipients developed tumors or experienced immune rejection, even without immunosuppressant drugs.

Researchers still are not sure what exactly caused the vision improvements, but they speculate that the transplanted cells may have multiplied or triggered the patient’s own cells to repair the damaged cornea.

Nishida plans to launch larger clinical trials in March 2024 to test the treatment’s effectiveness. 

"These success stories suggest we are headed in the right direction," says Bharti, adding that similar iPS-based trials are underway globally.

This is truly a “see it to believe it” moment—science is opening new eyes to possibilities.