Kobe City Medical Center Hospital which does clinical research on transplantation of allogenic retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells for the treatment of exudative age-related macular degeneration announced that one patient had developed retinal edema. On January 15, 2018, the patient underwent surgery to remove the retinal frontal membrane which is thought to be the cause of retinal edema. This is the first time in clinical research in Japan on regenerative medicine using iPS cells that complications requiring surgery occurred.

Nikkei Biotech news release, January 16, 2018