If you lose your view, it can be scary, but at the beginning of this year Swiss scientists achieved a breakthrough that could change the treatment of eye diseases. In this recently carried out study, researchers bring stem cells into the human eye into a sharp focus. These newly discovered multipotent stem cells in the retina could one day help repair damaged seeing.
Stem cell stories
In April 2025, neuroscientists from the University of Lausanne and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology released research in Science Translational Medicine Announcement of a new kind of cell in the human eye that they have called “human neuroretinal stem-like cells” (HNRSCs). This discovery shows that we have a natural way to repair visual loss that is hidden in our own eyes.
These multi -purpose regenerating cells could help us repair the retina in the future, increase personalized eye cells for therapy and to create new options for the treatment of forms of blindness that currently have no healing. According to the World Health Organization, at least 2.2 billion people worldwide have visual impairment or blindness, many lose their eyes due to retinal damage. The use of specialized stem cells from the eye could change the way we treat the loss of vision.
See the overall picture
The researchers have long been investigating regenerative medicine to heal the loss of eyesight. Some animals can grow back like fish, but so far it was not clear whether people also have special cells with this capacity. If fish damage your retina, you can regenerate it with your own retinal stem cells and restore eyesight. Eye scientists realized that it could be possible to heal a loss of vision that is caused by diseases such as macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa or diabetic retinopathy if this natural repair process could be replicated. This idea has triggered a striving for decades to find an equivalent population of regenerative cells in the human eye.
The retina is a thin layer of tissue in the background of the eye, the light captures and sends signals to the brain and helps us to see it. Damage to the retina causes people to lose their eyes. Scientists have looked in mind for stem cells that can fix this damage, but they had not found the right ones until now.
Stem cells in the retina
Stem cells are a specialized cell type that can turn into different types of cells in the body. They help to repair damaged fabrics and replace cells that are lost or damaged. In the eye, doctors have already used artificial stem cells bred in the laboratory to treat an illness that is referred to as macular degeneration.
Macular degeneration occurs when blood vessels that feed the retina, leaky, which leads to visual loss when people get older. The use of transplanted induced stem cells to repair these blood vessels was a big step forward, but this therapy aims to use blood vessels rather than the retina itself. This new cell type differs from those used to treat macular degeneration. In contrast to induced stem cells, there are already human neurorine stem cells (HNRSCs) and can turn into specialized cells that are only found in the eye.
These new cells could even fix even better damage because they come from the retina itself. In the future, the researchers hope that HNRSCs could contribute not only to treat macular degeneration, but also other serious eye diseases such as the replacement of retina and retinitis pigmentosa. Finding these cells opens up a new way to heal the eye with its own natural tools.
The search is on
The researchers examined the human fetal eye tissue using high-tech tools that help them examine individual cells.
Based on research on other animals, the team suspected that people could have stem cell -like cells on the edges of the retina in an area called the Ziliar limit zone. This part of the eye was not well examined in humans. Thanks to the technological advances, the researchers were able to take a closer look.
Using a method referred to as a single cell RNA sequencing, they analyzed thousands of individual retinal cells to determine which genes were in every active person. By comparing the pattern of genetic activity, they discovered a small group of cells with a stem cell signature that indicates that these cells multiply and could turn into the cells required to build and repair the retina.
It was not easy to find these cells. They represent less than 1% of the cells in the retina, which makes them incredibly rare and difficult to recognize. It took a lot of careful work and new technology to recognize them under the many different cell types. However, this discovery could change the way scientists think about the loss of eyesight.
Eyes in a dish?
The next step was to answer the questions. Did we behave these cells like stem cells? Are you transforming into retinal cells? Can we use it to repair the retina?
The researchers collected as many HNRSCs from donated human retinas as possible and cultivated them in the laboratory. Instead of requiring comprehensive reprogramming or genetic modification, these cells could grow and multiply under specialized but relatively simple conditions. It is even more remarkable that they naturally developed into a number of retinal cell types that were necessary to build up the complex structures of the eye. This discovery means that one day scientists can grow Mini -Retinas in a bowl and that new opportunities for the examination of human eye diseases, the screening of medication and testing gene therapies, tasks that were difficult before the limited access to human eye tissue and less precise cell models were difficult.
The new cells, which are called humane neurorine -like cells (HNRSCs), were able to make themselves copies of themselves, in important eye cells such as photoreceptors (which help us see light) and help to repair the retina. In mice with eye damage, the cells even improved seeing. In other words, these new cells could grow back parts of the eye and help to restore the visibility.
A critical eye
This research is still new, but very promising. The team is of the opinion that these cells could help treat the loss of vision caused by retinal damage, including conditions such as macular degeneration, Pigmentosa or diabetic retinopathy.
At the moment, these stem cells will be the most valuable as a research instrument. Scientists can use you to examine how retinal cells react to different treatments and better understand how HNRSCs behave. But there is still a lot that we don’t know. These cells are so new that the researchers only start uncovering their properties. They are hidden on the edge of the retina, which represents the challenge, to find out how to “wake” them or activate them to repair damage. We also do not yet know why they do not fix the retina injuries for themselves. And because they are embedded deep in the eye, scientists, in contrast to easily accessible stem cells from places such as bone marrow, have to find safe ways to isolate or lose them for therapy.
In contrast to current treatments that use laboratory cells, human neurorine stem cells (HNRSCs) come from the eye itself and can of course grow to many types of eye cells. Liu, SU and her colleagues say that more tests are necessary before trying it out in humans, but their discovery could lead to better and more natural opportunities to restore visibility.
References
Liu, H., Ma, Y., Gao, N., Zhou, Y., Li, G., Zhu, Q., Liu, X., Li, S., Deng, C., Chen, C., Yang, Y., Ren, Q., HU. Identification and characterization of human retinal stem cells that are capable of regeneration of the retina. Science Translational MedicinePresent 17 (791). https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.adp6864