TOKYO, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Japan's health ministry on Tuesday granted permission for world's first clinical test with artificially derived stem cells for the treatment of a corneal disease that causes decreasing vision, local media reported.
The test using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells will be conducted by researchers from the Osaka University.
It will be implemented on four adult patients who suffer from the corneal disease causing haze and decline in their vision, with transplantation of 0.05-mm sheet-like tissues cultivated from iPS cells.
The research team plans to conduct the first transplantation in June and will try to make the operation accessible to practical use in the next five to six years.
The health ministry has required more documents that explain the trial in detail before it is conducted.
With artificial cultivation, the iPS cells can grow into any type of body tissues.
They were developed by Shinya Yamanaka at the Kyoto University who won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2012 for the achievement.
