Having luring eyes like the cats have could be lascivious.

In other cases, it can save your sight.

Scientists have found that cats can have a disease similar to retinitis pigmentosa, an incurable genetic disease in humans that affects one out of every 3,500 Americans and often causes blindness.

This disease renders the cat blind in about 5 years. The disease destroys slowly the photoreceptors cells (rods and cones) in the retinas, the thin film at the back of the eyeball that makes sight possible.

The cat condition was discovered by the Swedish Dr. Kristina Narfstrom, a veterinary ophthalmologist at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

She experiments special silicon chip implants in partially blind cats in order to shed a light in the research for a possible human implant of retinas. By now, 30 human trials in cases with retinitis pigmentosa improved or at least slowed the disease.

The research on cats will point the best options for the chips' performance and train physicians on this method, as the cat eye is structurally very similar to the human eye.

The chips, which provide their own energy, are 2-millimeter-wide and their surface is covered with 5,000 light sensitive microphotodiodes, sending signals through the optic nerve to the visual centers in the brain. "We're placing it right where the photoreceptors are and if they're lacking, this is supposed to replace what they're doing," she said. "At this point, its impulses of light they're seeing (as opposed to images), but the aim of the research is to get more information out of the chip."

Research points to the fact that the electric signals coming from the chips may stimulate the regeneration of damaged photoreceptors around the implants. Researchers say they need two more years to clearly estimate the effect of the chips.

Other approaches in the field of sight regeneration employ genetic therapy or stem cells to replace retinal cells.

Some studies investigate for compounds that could make healthy retinal cells around the photoreceptors to replace damaged cells. Research includes video minicameras that transmit images directly to the brain or devices that send optic signals to a web of minielectrodes stuck to the retina.

A French approach bets for an implant releasing proteins in the eye to offset the damage done to the retinal cells. "We can treat these patients with gene therapy, but once the photoreceptors die, we have to replace them with stem cells or one of these artificial methods." said Tim Schoen, director of research development for the Foundation Fighting Blindness, Baltimore.