the luminous blog

Zebrafish study may point way to blindness cure

By Ben Hirschler Wed Aug 1, 2:25 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - The ability of zebrafish to regenerate damaged retinas has given scientists a clue about restoring human vision and could lead to an experimental treatment for blindness within five years.

British researchers said on Wednesday they had successfully grown in the laboratory a type of adult stem cell found in the eyes of both fish and mammals that develops into neurons in the retina.

In future, these cells could be injected into the eye as a treatment for diseases such as macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetes-related blindness, according to Astrid Limb of University College London's (UCL) Institute of Ophthalmology.

Damage to the retina -- the part of the eye that sends messages to the brain -- is responsible for most cases of sight loss.

"Our findings have enormous potential," Limb said. "It could help in all diseases where the neurons are damaged, which is basically nearly every disease of the eye."

Limb and her colleagues studied so-called Mueller glial cells in the eyes of people aged from 18 months to 91 years and found they were able to develop them into all types of neurons found in the retina.

They were also able to grow them easily in the lab, they reported in the journal Stem Cells.

The cells have already been tested in rats with diseased retinas, where they successfully migrated into the retina and took on the characteristics of the surrounding neurons. Now the team is working on the same approach in humans.

"We very much hope that we could do autologous transplants within five years," Limb told Reuters.

Autologous transplants, initially on a trial basis, will involve manipulating cells and injecting them back into an individual's own eye. Eventually, Limb hopes it will also be possible to transfer the cells between different people.

"Because they are so easy to grow, we could make stem cell banks and have cell lines available to the general population, subject to typing as with blood transfusions," she said.

Just why zebrafish have an abundant supply of adult stem cells to regenerate their retinas, while they are rare in mammals, remains a mystery but Limb suspects it is because mammals have a limiting system to stop proliferation.

The new work on Mueller glial cells is the latest example of researchers exploring the potential of different kinds of stem cells in treating eye disease. Another team from UCL and Moorfield's Eye Hospital said in June they aimed to repair damaged retinas with cells derived from embryonic stem cells.




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SAVE THE HIGH SEAS too
(not just your eyesight!
Anyway, I am tempted to say like Peter the Apostle said: "that man is used to live without with eyesight, why change that for him and wreak havoc with his life-long habit?" - the SEAS, on the other hand, were not always this polluted or depleted as they are now...)




The Solution - A Moratorium


Spotted moray eel (Gymnothorax moringa) slithers among the reef growth. Tropical Atlantic Ocean, Florida Keys.
Photo: OAR/National Undersea Research Programme (NURP); University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Related Links
• Political Momentum is Building
• Recent Action
• Enforcing a Moratorium
• Duration
• RFMOs



Mollusc at the Davidson Seamount off the coast of California, USA. Images courtesy of NOAA and MBARI


Gorgonian at the Davidson Seamount off the coast of California, USA. Images courtesy of NOAA and MBARI
To protect deep-sea biodiversity on the high seas from continued indiscriminate destruction the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition is calling on the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to adopt an immediate moratorium on deep-sea bottom trawl fishing on the high seas until legally-binding regimes for the effective conservation and management of fisheries and the protection of biodiversity on the high seas can be developed, implemented and enforced by the global community.

• Moratorium Terms
• Scope of Coverage
• Implementation
• Urgent Action Now

Moratorium Terms

Moratoria, by definition, temporarily suspend activities. As such, a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling would establish a temporary halt to this practice until such time as:

• the extent of deep-sea biodiversity and ecosystems, including populations of fish species, and their vulnerability to deepsea fishing on the high seas has been assessed;

# Legally-binding regime(s) to conserve and manage high seas biodiversity, including bottom fisheries, consistent with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) (1), the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement (FSA) (2), the 1993 UN FAO Compliance Agreement (3), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (4), and the UN FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (5), and any other necessary governance reforms, have been adopted and implemented; and

• adequate measures are in place to deal effectively with Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in noncompliance with international agreements.



Scope of Coverage

The moratorium should cover fishing on the high seas using any bottom trawl or similar towed net designed to operate in contact with the bottom of the sea. Governments would be expected to impose an immediate halt on any bottom trawling on the high seas involving either their nationals or vessels flying their flag or licensed by them, until the conditions for lifting the moratorium, as agreed by the international community, were met.



Implementation

A moratorium should enter into force within six to twelve months following adoption of the UNGA resolution. This would permit states enough time to pass legislation or regulations to implement the moratorium, and would provide nationals with the time to reconfigure their vessels and fishing operations.



Urgent Action Now

The severe and deteriorating conflict between deepsea biodiversity conservation and bottom trawling warrants urgent action by the UNGA this year. A high seas bottom trawl fishing moratorium would provide immediate protection to the extraordinarily rich, vulnerable and mostly undiscovered biodiversity of the deep seas.






Notes:

(1) United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Montego Bay, 10 December 1982. Entered into force 16 November 1994.

(2) 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement (FSA). Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, 1995.

(3) The 'Compliance Agreement' refers to the 1993 FAO Agreement to Promote Compliance with International Conservation and Management Measures by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas

(4) The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and was entered into force on 29 December 1993.

(5) The UN FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries was adopted by the Twenty-eighth Session of the FAO Conference on 31 October 1995.




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Alas, since this luminous blog post was published, and the news relased about the retine-regenerating possibilities offered by study of the zebrafish (which really is bad news for the zebrafish itself) - additional calamities for the sea were announced...

As the sweetwater dolphin is believed to be extinct now...

While, in the Congo or in some place, a new species of BATS was discovered...


DAMN YOU, BATS
DAMN YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL...

And bring Alfred with you.


Neither one of you guys will be too destabilized by the abrupt move; you're always hanging out in caves already...


...