Evaluating Potential Stem Cell Therapies For Age-Related Macular Degeneration

The purpose of this review is to synthesize the existing literature on the intriguing research and development of stem cell treatments for age-related macular degeneration, AMD. AMD is the leading cause of vision loss for older adults across the world, and while it does not cause complete blindness, it does impact central vision, making it harder to see faces, read, drive, or do close-up work like cooking or fixing things around the house. AMD is a progressive disease that occurs in three stages, and it is subcategorized as either wet (neovascular) or dry (atrophic). There is no treatment for late-stage dry AMD, but there is a treatment for the much less common wet AMD. Pluripotent stem cells, which include human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), have been used to study the development of disease processes and as potential therapies in multiple organ systems. This review focuses on the etiology of both forms of AMD, the stem cells being investigated for treatment, and the completed and ongoing clinical trials evaluating AMD stem cell treatments.