Fetal RPE Transplantation

Dr. Norman Radtke is doing RPE transplantation again. When I researched this procedure three years ago, he and his team were transplanting one sheet of fetal retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE) in to the diseased retinas of people with RP and ARMD. He is now doing transplants with two sheets of cells, both neural and RPE cells. He has some recent case study data on his site.

If you go to the “clinical trials” section of this informative website, you will find information on the trial. He also has a section entitled “outside trials” as well as “trial bulletins”. Both are excellent resources for keeping up with the latest in retinal research, regardless of who is funding it. The “bulletins” section is one I find particularly notable.

http://www.rvrc.com/_drradtke.cfm

I did find some published work by Dr. Radtke on this procedure.

This article was published in 2004, and reflects the results when transplanting one sheet of fetal RPE cells.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15302656?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Information from 2002:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11931789?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

From 1999:

http://lib.bioinfo.pl/meid:112531

A Swedish rabbit study on "full thickness implant", which I believe may be both the RPE and neural retina layers.

http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Aktion=ShowFulltext&ArtikelNr=27472&Ausgabe=226339&ProduktNr=224269

Swedish pigs:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17072635?ordinalpos=9&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
An 2002 overview of retinal transplantation:

http://www.djo.harvard.edu/site.php?url=/physicians/oa/379


I keep an eye on Steve Wynn, Las Vegas casino developer and gazillionaire, since he has RP and is one of the wealthiest people on the planet. In the blogosphere, there are numerous references to a "government approved experimental eye surgery" he had done in May of 2007 at Johns Hopkins. So, I tried to find any trials at Wilmer (Johns Hopkins) that are recruiting RP patients to see if I could make an educated guess as to which procedure he had done. I did not have much success. But, I will keep searching. According to the articles in the blogosphere (always suspect), he disclosed this surgery plan to his dealers on the eve of a union vote. They still unionized, but the information was made public. If you believe what you read, anyway.

Obviously, there are numerous ethical concerns when using fetal retinal tissue from aborted babies. Someone, I believe it may have been Mark Twain, stated something along the lines of, "Ethics are the luxury of the well fed." In other words, it is easy to extol lofty ideals and virtue when in a position of relative ease. The real test comes when "the rubber hits the road" and life becomes more challenging.

My personal opinion is, until you have navigated a busy intersection with a toilet paper roll encircling each eye and a stick, then you do not get an opinion. Okay, maybe you can have one. But, do not express it. At least, not around me, unless you come bearing dark chocolate and red wine. :)