In the past few years, stem cell treatment has gained momentum as scientists from all over the world have claimed the potential of stem cell therapy in treating various life-threatening diseases. However, it has been claimed that stem cell treatment can also prove helpful in treating blindness.

In a recent study, scientists from the US conducted an experiment on two women who were legally been declared as blind. While one of the patients was in her 50s, the other was 70 years old. The women went through the stem cell treatment. It has been reported that the vision of the two have improved, and now they are capable of counting and distinguishing letters in a better way.

It has been informed that the participants of the study were suffering from macular degeneration. Diseases like macular degeneration are hard to treat as no treatment for it is available till now. However, the stem cell treatment has given a new ray of hope to those who have been suffering from the said disease.

It has been unveiled that during the experiment, eyeballs of the patients were injected with 50,000 retinal cells, which were grown in the laboratory by using embryonic stem cells. Though the researchers of the study are not very sure about the efficacy of stem cell treatment for curing blindness on a large front, they are full of hopes to come up with something evident soon.

They said that they are not sure whether the improved vision of the participants was due to the stem cells treatment or because of the immune-suppressing drugs given to the women to make sure their body doesn't reject the stem cells. The chairman of stem cell science at Melbourne University, Martin Pera, was reported saying: "Soon be clear whether these preliminary results . . . are a harbinger of a new era in cell therapy for this devastating disease. We can't be sure, but it's a promising start".