A Japanese team reported Thursday that five patients with a severe eye disease were doing well after they received in 2017 the world's first transplant surgeries using induced pluripotent stem cells, known as iPS cells, from donors.

As part of a clinical research program, the patients received the transplants of artificially grown retinal cells made from donor iPS cells as a treatment for wet-type age-related macular degeneration, which can often lead to blindness.

The first transplant was performed in March 2017. In the surgeries, a fluid containing retinal cells was injected into the patients' eyes.