Articles about Eye Health and Disease from 2000 and earlier:
 

Artificial Solar Cell Retinal Implant Undergoing Clinical Trials in Retinitis Pigmentosa Patients

Optobionics Corporation has developed an artificial silicone retinal implant using solar cell technology that is undergoing clinical trials in humans, starting in June 2000. After 6 years of animal research, the FDA allowed the implants to be surgically placed beneath the retinas of 3 human volunteers to evaluate their biocompatibility, and potentially, their functionality. Dr. Alan Chow MD, an ophthalmologist, was interested in developing an implant that could electrically stimulate the retina to create some level vision for those patients with severe visual loss from retinitis pigmentosa (RP). In RP, the photoreceptor layer of the retina degenerates, leading to progressive visual loss. The condition often runs in families, and can lead to severe loss of vision in both eyes. There are hundreds of millions of photoreceptors in the retina which convert light impulses to electrical signals. The signals are carried by nerve tissue within the retina to the ganglion cell layer, which sends the visual signal to the brain through the optic nerve. In retinitis pigmentosa, the ganglion cell layer remains intact.

The artificial silicone retinal implant is 2mm in diameter, and is one-thousandth of an inch thick. There are thousands of solar cells on the surface of the the chip, which each generate a small electrical current in the presence of light. This current is transmitted to retina, as the chip is surgically placed beneath the retina.

At the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in October, 2000, it was reported that the implanted retinal chips were showing no signs of rejection, migration, or other complications. Information about any vision being stimulated by the chips has not been released at this time.

Retinal Implant is about 2 millimeters in diameter	Retinal Implant shown under the retina of the macula near the optic nerve (structure to the right with vessels coming out from it)	Surface of Retinal Implant showing thousands of solar cells

 

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