British scientists will soon begin trials for a cutting-edge treatment using adult stem cells that could help cure certain types of blindness, they said yesterday.

The two-year trial, to be conducted at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in Edinburgh and the Gartnavel General Hospital in Glasgow, will begin this month and involve 20 patients with corneal blindness.

The treatment being used involves using the stem cells of dead adult donors, rather than the more controversial research involving embryonic stem cells, and if successful could help millions of people around the world who suffer from corneal blindness, around 80 percent of whom are elderly.