Stargardt’s disease (also known as Stargardt macular dystrophy) is the most common form of inherited juvenile macular degeneration. Inherited as an autosomal recessive trait, it is a severe form of macular degeneration that begins in late childhood, leading to legal blindness. Stargardt’s disease is symptomatically similar to age-related macular degeneration, and it affects approximately one in 10,000 children.
There are currently two approaches underway to treat Stargardt’s, the use of embryonic stem cells to produce retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells, which are injected subretinally, to replace damaged RPE cells (which take care of the photoreceptor cells) (sponsored by Advanced Cell (Read more...)