Premium
Rapid and efficient derivation of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) from human pluripotent stem cells
Author(s) -
Pennington Britney Ocean,
Buchholz David E.,
Hinman Cassidy,
Croze Roxanne,
Coffey Peter J.,
Clegg Dennis O.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.lb160
Subject(s) - induced pluripotent stem cell , retinal pigment epithelium , embryonic stem cell , microbiology and biotechnology , stem cell , biology , macular degeneration , retinal , human induced pluripotent stem cells , retina , neuroscience , medicine , ophthalmology , genetics , biochemistry , gene
The death of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) induces the leading cause of blindness in the elderly: age‐related macular degeneration (AMD). Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have the potential to generate a limitless source of RPE for cellular therapies, but the current methods of both spontaneous and directed differentiation are time consuming and relatively inefficient. This study aims to develop an efficient protocol that derives RPE from hESCs and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in 14 days. Applying defined factors at critical points during the differentiation result in ~ 80% of the cells expressing RPE markers at the end of two weeks. This protocol expedites the development of RPE from pluripotent stem cells, which is useful for generating therapeutic cells and investigating maturation of RPE in vitro .