Lab grown 'mini eyes' shed light on blindness caused by rare condition

Researchers are one step closer to curing a disease that affects a child’s hearing and vision

Cochlear implants can help with hearing loss but no treatments for vision loss (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Scientists have grown “mini eyes” for the first time, enabling them to study a rare genetic disease that affects hearing and vision.

Researchers from University College London made the 3D mini eyes, called organoids, to better understand a rare genetic disease called Usher syndrome.

Patients at Great Ormond Street Hospital donated skin samples, which were then used by scientists to generate stem cells and develop the mini eyes.

In a healthy eye, rod cells in the retina help us perceive the size, shape, and brightness of visual images.

Researchers found that they could get rod cells to organise themselves into layers that mimic their organisation in the retina, producing a “mini eye”.

Senior author of the study, Professor Jane Sowden said: “We are very grateful to patients and families who donate these samples to research so that, together, we can further our understanding of genetic eye conditions, like Usher syndrome.

“Although a while off, we hope that these models can help us to one day develop treatments that could save the sight of children and young people with Usher syndrome.”

This breakthrough is an important step forward to curing the disease. Previous research using animal cells could not mimic the same sort of sight loss as that seen in Usher syndrome.

Usher syndrome is the most common genetic disease of combined deafness and blindness, affecting approximately three to ten in 100,000 people worldwide.

Children with type one Usher syndrome are often born profoundly deaf, while their sight slowly deteriorates until they are blind by adulthood.

Although cochlear implants can help with hearing loss, there are currently no treatments for retinitis pigmentosa - a disease that causes vision loss in Usher syndrome.

While this research is in the early stages, these steps towards understanding the condition and how to design a future treatment could give hope to those who are due to lose sight, scientists said.

The teams findings was published in Stem Cell Reports.