Japan carries out first iPS stem cell implant surgery

Japanese researchers Friday conducted the world's first surgery to implant "iPS" stem cells in a human body in a major boost to regenerative medicine, two institutions involved said.

A female patient in her 70s with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a common medical condition that can lead to blindness in older people, had a sheet of retina cells that had been created from iPS cells implanted, yahoo.com reports.

"It is the first time in the world that iPS cells have been transplanted into a human body," a spokeswoman for Riken, one of the research institutions, told AFP.

In a statement, the institution said that "no serious adverse phenomena such as excessive bleeding occurred" during the two-hour procedure.

The surgery is still at an experimental stage, but if it is successful, doctors hope it will stop the deterioration in vision that comes with AMD.

The patient -- one of six expected to take part in the trial -- will be monitored over the next four years to determine how well the implants have performed, whether the body has accepted them and if they have become cancerous.

AMD, a condition that is incurable at present, affects mostly middle-aged and older people and can lead to blindness. It afflicts around 700,000 people in Japan alone.

The study was being carried out by researchers from government-backed research institution Riken and the Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation Hospital.

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