The clinical significance of ocular angiogenesis is enormous, due to the fact that in the western hemisphere, retinal neovascularization resulting from diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of new blindness in young patients, and choroidal neovascularization (CNV) resulting from AMD is the chief cause of severe and irreversible loss of vision in elderly patients. Over the past several years, much progress has been made in the field of angiogenesis research, fueled by the hypothesis that inhibition of angiogenesis would be a useful strategy to a number of ocular diseases in which pathologic angiogenesis plays a role. Retinal neovascularization involves the development of sprouts from retinal vessels, which usually penetrates the inner limiting membrane (ILM) and grows into the vitreous. Retinal neovascularization is observed in ischemic retinopathies such as diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity, central vein occlusion and branch retinal vein occlusion. The inhibition of vessel proliferation is the strategy utilized by current market technologies and has led to the presence of a plethora of drugs attempting to target neovascularization. Even if the efforts of these drugs become somewhat successful in inhibiting ocular angiogenesis for the short term and bring symptomatic relief, the underlying vascular loss that is the initiating cause remains untreated. In addition the long-term effects of anti-angiogenic drugs are unclear. It can be assumed however that they might lead to the exacerbation of vessel loss, the precipitating event for neovascularization. Therapeutic stem cells is a relevant new technology being developed to overcome the shortcomings of several current technologies. Hematopoietic stem cells have been shown to rescue abnormal retinal vascularization in a murine model of retinal neovascularization. Arteriocyte's core business is focused on developing `off-the shelf' stem cell-based products for therapeutic angiogenesis applications. In this study the company proposes to explore the specific use of CD 133 hemangioblast as a cell type to rescue retinal vessel obliteration and diminish the neovascular effects of diabetic retinopathy
