5 Things You Need to Know about Stem Cell Treatment for the Eyes

RIDGEFIELD, Conn. - Dec. 29, 2013 - PRLog -- Making a decision for yourself or a loved one regarding alternative treatments for blinding eye disease is not easy.  Many times the information found on the first page of the internet relates to how much advertising money is spent rather than on the quality of treatment.  So what does MD Stem Cells have say about how to make these decisions?

Dr. Levy is President of MD Stem Cells and Study Director for the Stem Cell Ophthalmology Treatment Study -abbreviated SCOTS –being conducted in southeast Florida .   “We’ve been involved in stem cell eye treatments for several years and are now managing SCOTS which is the largest clinical trial of stem cells in ophthalmology registered with the National Institutes of Health. This gives us some unique insights into the regenerative medicine area” explains Dr. Levy.  When considering stem cells for eye treatment he believes there are 5 important points potential patients should remember:

1) Don’t hide your interest in stem cells from your own eye doctor.  He or she is fighting to save your sight and is committed to finding the best quality of care and up to date treatments for you.  If you can be treated within a stem cell clinical trial your doctor may be more inclined to support your decision and help you get the most out of any treatment.  Make certain to review www.clinicaltrials.gov regularly for the latest registered studies.

2) The physician doing any eye treatment should be an experienced retinal surgeon or at least an ophthalmologist.  A retinal surgeon is used to doing complex interventions near and within the eye involving the retina and optic nerve.  Therefore you will receive the safest, most effectively applied treatment likely resulting in a better outcome.  Non-ophthalmologists don’t have the training to work very close to delicate eye tissue.

3) Stem cells are likely more effective when introduced in direct proximity to the tissue that is damaged.  Therefore the more stem cells and the closer they are placed to the damaged retina or optic nerve the better.  Intravenous alone (in the vein in your arm) without application of stem cells adjacent or within the eye is unlikely to benefit the vision.

4) Make certain the stem cells come from bone marrow.  And ask about the quality of the stem cell harvest and processing.  There are studies that strongly suggest that bone marrow derived stem cells or BMSC are the most multi-potent and similar to embryonic stem cells that can be found in the adult.   Therefore researchers prefer BMSC over adipose tissue.   When harvested correctly by an experienced orthopedic surgeon or hematologist, the cell counts in BMSC can be enormous and exceed those found in fat.  But it is not only the cell counts that are important- BMSC are more actively dividing than stem cells found in fat.

5) Understand the potential benefits and limitations of adult stem cell treatments.  There are pharmaceutical companies with biologic stem cell drugs in trials but these may take years to come to fruition.  Adult stem cell treatments are available now and may benefit patients- however exact, statistically meaningful results await reports from clinical studies like SCOTS.

Conditions potentially eligible for SCOTS include retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), myopic macular degeneration, hereditary retinopathies such as Retinitis Pigmentosa and Stargardts, as well as selected inflammatory, vascular and traumatic conditions. Optic nerve diseases considered eligible include glaucoma, ischemic optic neuropathy, optic atrophy, optic neuritis, LHON, NMO and some trauma. SCOTS is focused on the ocular tissue that has sustained damage and its potential for improvement rather than a specific disease entity.

SCOTS is being conducted under an Institutional Review Board and is registered with the National Institutes of Health or NIH, listed on their website www.clinicaltrials.gov with Identifier NCT 01920867.  Healthcare providers or patients interested in determining whether they may be candidates or healthcare providers may visit the website www.mdstemcells.com or reach Dr. Levy through Email: info@mdstemcells.com  Telephone: 203-423-9494 office hours Eastern Time, USA.

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