Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

kagamiseki t1_j3pq9fd wrote

Reply to comment by kedson87 in Lab-grown retinal eye cells make successful connections, open door for clinical trials to treat blindness by chrisdh79

Short answer is that it's not possible.

Long answer, most likely, the muscles are weak and imbalanced from disuse, so you might not be able to point your eye in the right direction to even begin making connections. If all of the biology is OK, then some connections can (possibly) be made, but 1 million to 1 odds, you'll never ever be anywhere close to happy with the vision.

You'd have to cover the good eye, and go through life using only the blind eye, likely for years. Learn to feel things while looking at them, and hope that your brain makes the right connections between specks of light and the physical form in your hands. You might get to the point where you can see that you're holding a vague oblong mass, and guess that it's a fork because it feels like one. That would be considered a success by current standards. At best, that eye might help you fumble your way around the world, slightly better and safer than being blind. But reading, recognizing faces, probably never.

Protect your good eye. Don't smoke, keep blood pressure/cholesterol down, don't become overweight or diabetic. Avoid getting sick. See your eye doctor regularly. Most importantly, wear some sort of shatterproof eyewear at all times. You don't have "back-up" eye like other people. Be well.

3

kedson87 t1_j3pr4pe wrote

Thank you so very much for your answer.

My blind eye follows my working eye, but is noticeably smaller due to its misuse. So you’re probably right on the money there.

I’m a healthy and active nonsmoker, and intend to remain so! I suppose the dream of magically seeing with my right eye has never been more than that, but I can’t help be a tiny bit hopeful when I see news like this.

2

kagamiseki t1_j3prpp8 wrote

If your blind eye is smaller, it's called phthisis, meaning it shrank because the blood supply to the useless organ has effectively been irreversibly shut off (oversimplification). Even if the brain connections could be made, it still wouldn't be able to see because it will never have enough blood supply. You'd probably need a full eye transplant, and by the time we manage to do that, we can practically do full head transplants.

Really great progress they're making in the science though. It's a shame, about your misfortune.

2

kedson87 t1_j3ps3ff wrote

My wife might quite like me having a full head transplant at times.

But, yes, my blind eye is smaller, tender to the touch (specifically on the side), has a pretty severe cataract and astigmatism. So your Reddit-diagnosis is probably right on the money. Thank you for your knowledge!

1