Project details

In conditions such as diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity, central/branch vein occlusion, retinal vasculitis and radiation retinopathy, the retinal blood vessels degenerate and fail to supply the retina with the oxygen and nutrition it needs. This can lead to severe visual impairment. Current treatments are mainly focused on the late stages of the disease. Therefore there is an urgent need to explore novel treatment modalities for the early stages of vessel damage to prevent progression that leads to sight-threatening complications.

Recent evidence suggests that vascular stem cells (known as endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs)) can be isolated and injected into patients to assist blood vessel repair. Clinically, this has already been shown for oxygen-deprived (ischaemic) hearts where EPCs can reduce further damage and even regenerate the damaged tissue. Dr Medina Benavente believes that several important diseases in which retinal blood vessels degenerate could be treated with vascular stem cell therapy.

The concept of such cell therapy would involve isolating cells from the patient, expanding cell numbers in the laboratory and then injecting the patients own cells into sites of vascular damage e.g. retina. This research project will assess each one of these key points: cell isolation, expansion in vitro, and cell delivery into ischaemic retinas. Results from this research will have extensive clinical implications by providing basic information on how to develop a novel vascular stem cell therapy for treatment of sight-threatening ischaemic retinopathies.