from Hacker News

Lens of human eye can be fully regenerated, at least in newborns

by krzysiek on 5/20/16, 6:54 PM with 35 comments

• by roberthahn on 5/20/16, 8:07 PM

  I had to have my lenses removed from both eyes when I was a child (in the 70s). The problem in my case was that they were dislocated.

  Since the surgery, I wore very thick glasses to correct it. I switched to contacts in the early 80s (contact lens tech was barely viable by then) augmented with reading glasses.

  Today I wear contacts to get to 20/20 or 20/30, and reading glasses for computer work or reading. My correction is around +8.25 or so for each eye.

  This is very exciting news and I hope kids don't have to go through the pain of wearing super thick glasses growing up.

• by toomuchtodo on 5/20/16, 7:43 PM

  UCSD press release: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/stem_cells_regenerate_...

  Nature abstract: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v531/n7594/full/nature1...

  Obligatory Nature paper DOI ident for sci-hub lookup: doi:10.1038/nature17181

• by nfriedly on 5/21/16, 1:43 AM

  This is absolutely possible. I know a woman who's entire eye was removed when she was a child, and it grew back completely about 30 years later. No one quite understands why (or why it took 30 years), but the human body is full of surprises.

• by sandworm101 on 5/20/16, 8:24 PM

  As I understand the matter, these sorts of interventions have/should be done as soon as possible after birth. The developing brain needs the visual feedback to develop vision properly. So it is good news to see them focusing on younger patients.

• by arithma on 5/20/16, 7:45 PM

  My son did the older surgery when he was a newborn. I just wish we had to do this surgery now instead (or if we can benefit in anyway from this new technique.)

  Note: did the surgery at "Associated Retinal Consultants." I can't read this without getting too emotional, and am not sure if this is considered a totally new thing or if we just missed out on this possibility then.

• by hanniabu on 5/21/16, 11:23 AM

  So since eyes don't grow in size from birth, could everyone have their lens removed early on to be saved as a potential replacement for later on in life? Would there be any benefit to doing this since there's already operations such as lasyk?

• by ars on 5/20/16, 7:32 PM

  I feel bad for whichever newborn needed such surgery :(

• by Grishnakh on 5/20/16, 8:53 PM

  It'll be great if they can do this for older people eventually, so we don't need to wear reading glasses.

• by ck2 on 5/21/16, 8:12 AM

  Maybe it is based on stem cell availability?

  Younger you are, more you have?

  Guess they would have figured that out though.