Glowing contact lens could prevent blindness

Developed by a team at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) the innovative technology - which uses similar technology to luminous wrist-watches - is designed to emit low levels of light into the wearers eye at night, reducing the oxygen demands of the eye, and limiting the the impact of diabetic retinopathy, a condition often associated with diabetes in its more advanced stages.

The loss of vision that accompanies diabetes is the result of the damage the disease causes to tiny blood vessels throughout the body, including those in the eye. That damage results in reduced blood flow to the nerve cells in the retina and their eventual death.

As the disease progresses, the body attempts to counteract the effects of the damaged blood vessels by growing new ones within the retina. In diabetes patients, however, these vessels tend to be badly developed and bleed into the clear fluid inside the eye, obscuring vision and compounding eyesight problems.