Blindness partially reversed in mice Although the treatment is a long way from being trialled on humans, the "landmark" study offers hope to hundreds of thousands of people suffering from eye conditions like macular degeneration, which affects 15 per cent of over-75s and is the most common form of blindness. Researchers from University College London injected 200,000 immature versions of cells known as rod-photoreceptors, taken from the eyes of newborn healthy mice, into mice with a genetic condition that made them blind in the dark. The scientists, who published their work in the Nature journal, said the first clinical trials on humans could be five to ten years away. They wrote: "The results presented here demonstrate for the first time that transplanted rod-photoreceptor precursors can integrate into a dysfunctional adult retina, and, by directly connecting with the host retinal circuitry, truly improve vision." Professor Phil Luthert, director of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, said: "This is a landmark paper and the techniques used here are part of a pretty big push in regenerative medicine. It was only a few years ago that we wouldn't have thought repairing adult systems in this way would be possible - it was assumed to be a bridge too far, but with retinas at least, it seems entirely feasible.