Scientists have developed a less invasive cataract surgery using stem cells that lessens complications and healing time in infants. 

A joint effort of the University of California's San Diego School of Medicine, and the Sichuan and Sun Yat-sen Universities in China, the team's findings was published in the recent edition of scientific journal Nature. 

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The team, led by Dr. Kang Zhang, utilized the regenerative ability of stem cells to regrow new lens for the patient. 

"We devised a new surgery to make a very small opening at the side of a cataractous lens bag, remove [the] cataract inside, allow the opening to heal, and promote dormant lens stem cells to regrow an entirely new lens with vision," Khang said. 

The method was tested on animals with success. It was also tested on 12 infants (below two years old with congenital cataracts, while the standard cataract surgery was done on 25 infants. 

In a normal cataract surgery, impants of plastic intranet ocular lens are needed because the surgery destroys a big part of the lens' stem cells. With the newly developed method, the lens epithelial stem cells (LECs) are left intact, which regenerates the lens of the children. 

Zhang said that the 12 infants who received the new method had fewer complications and faster healing, while the other group had a "higher incidence of post-surgery inflammation, early-onset ocular hypertension, and increased lense clouding." 

"We are now planning a study to test this approach in this old patient population. In addition, we are testing if this approach can be used in treating other leading causes of blindness, such as macular degeneration and glaucoma," Zhang said. 

Tagsstem cells, Stem Cell Regeneration, cataract surgery, Scientific Breakthrough, breakthrough in China, eye diseases, discovered cures, new surgical method