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TOKYO, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on Wednesday approved transplant of retinal cells to treat patients using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from another person.
According to Japan's public broadcaster NHK, the the application was filed in October last year by Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital, the government-backed Riken institute in Kobe, Kyoto University and Osaka University.
The procedure will involve using retinal tissue created from iPS cells that are more likely to be accepted by the patient's immune system.
By not using the patient's own cells, future costs and waiting time to prepare the transplant can be greatly reduced.
The cost, currently in the region of 100 million yen (882,000 U.S. dollars), can be reduced by 20 percent or more and the waiting time will be shortened from 11 months to one month.
In the uNPRecedented trial slated to take place in the first half of this year, researchers said they are planning to treat a patient with wet-type age-related macular degeneration, a serious eye condition, by transplanting retinal tissue derived from iPS tissue.