A new research may help people who are living with vision problems. Two research teams have discovered a creative way that may help people regenerate their own eye lens.

First team’s researchers have created a surgical technique that they claim can reset stem cell in the human eye to take the place of damaged eye tissue. The technique is capable of replacing tissues damaged by cataracts or an eye disease.

The second research team from Japan has developed a new way that turns ordinary skin cells into different kinds of eye cells.

Eye experts believe both the new techniques can replace clumsy cataract or cornea surgery. Both the ways show therapeutic potential of stem cells, said Dr. Julie Daniels, an ophthalmologist at University College London.

Cataracts are the prime cause of blindness in people across the world, as per a report of the National Eye Institute. By the age of 80, over 50% people in the US reported to have cataract surgery. About 20 million people in the world undergo the surgery every year, the report added. Some babies are born with cataracts.

For the first study, a team of researchers from the US and China used a common method where damaged lens are removed to leave more stem cells of lens epithelial stem/progenitor cells. “Current surgical procedure for cataract treatment inadvertently destroys the integrity of the lens capsule and the very lens epithelial stem/progenitor cells that hold the regenerative key to lens restoration. It is also associated with numerous side-effects and a significant risk of complications, particularly in infants”, said the researchers.

According to them, they applied the technique first in rabbits, and then in monkeys. Both the studies have been published by the journal Nature.