Is it possible to replace human eyes with cat's eyes to get day-night vision?

star_gazer

You'll note that no one has ever performed an eye transplant on a human. There are plenty of blind people with serious eye problems for whom an eye transplant would be curative. So why hasn't it been done ? The reason is that the eye, and specifically the retina, is an extension of the central nervous system. Indeed the meninges, which enclose the brain and spinal cord, extend along the optic nerve and merge with the back of the eyeball. As part of the central nervous system the retina suffers the same fate as any other part of the brain or spinal cord if you injure it, or operate on it - the nerve cells that connect the eyeball to the brain all die. Therefore, if you did take the eye from an owl, or even an eye from a human donor, and implant it into a human face, the recipient would never see because the retinal ganglion cells, which make up the optic nerve, would all die. http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=1506.0;prev_next=prev Dec 18 09, 10:52 AM

beachbumb101

I don't think it's possible but it would be cool to transplant human eyes in the near future. I am blind in one eye due to a detached retenah. If something could be done to fix my vision to the point where I can drive a car, I would pay the x dollars for the surgery. Dec 18 09, 2:28 PM

Zbeckabee

Additionally: Eye banks retrieve and store eyes for cornea transplants and research. US eye banks provide tissue for about 46,000 cornea transplants a year to treat conditions such as keratoconus and cornea scarring. The cornea is not the only part of the eye that can currently undergo transplantation. The sclera can also be used to repair recipient eyes in surgery. In contrast to other organs, there is an adequate supply of corneas for transplants. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_bank Dec 18 09, 6:49 PM