Chakravarti is among thousands of Indians who lose their sight in chemical accidents each year. Today, some of those people can see again, thanks to scientists at the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, in Hyderabad. The institute is treating patients with stem cells – not the controversial embryonic stem cells, but adult stem cells. Inside the lab where the cells are grown, Savitri Maddileti shows me two petri dishes. Each dish contains a tiny piece of eye tissue from a patient. “One is [from a] 15-year-old female, and the other is [from a] five-year-old male,” she says. Both children had accidents with household chemicals and became blind in one eye.
View the original article here: Stem Cells Restore Sight in India – PRI’s The World