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A treatment for eye diseases that is derived from human embryonic stem cells might have improved the vision of two patients, bolstering the beleaguered field, researchers reported Monday. Dr. Steven Schwartz, a retina specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, conducted the trial with two patients. Sue Freeman said her vision improved in a meaningful way after the treatment, which used embryonic stem cells. The report, published online in the medical journal The Lancet, is the first to describe the effect on patients of a therapy involving human embryonic stem cells. The paper comes two months after the Geron...

MONDAY, June 14 (HealthDayNews) -- Bananas, oranges, and other fruits may reduce the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among older people. Scientists have found that people who ate at least three daily servings of fruit had a 36 percent lower risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD) than people who ate fewer than 1.5 servings a day. "This is the first good study that has some statistical value that documents what we've been thinking all along," said Dr. Robert Cykiert, a professor of ophthalmology at New York University School of Medicine in New York...

A bacterium linked to heart disease may also be a factor in age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in people over 55 in the United States. A new study has found the organism, Chlamydia pneumoniae, in the eye tissue of 6 of 9 patients with macular degeneration, but in none of 22 who did not have the disorder. The paper, based on work carried out at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, was published in the November issue of Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology. Most vision loss in age-related macular degeneration is caused by...