Age-related Macular Degeneration Retinal degenerative diseases are caused by the dysfunction and death of photoreceptor cells and can lead to irreversible vision loss or complete blindness. One of the most prevalent retinal degenerative disease is age-related macular degeneration (AMD), affecting about 20 million people in the US and 170 million people worldwide. There is currently no effective treatment for retinal degeneration. However, in recent years, stem cell-derived tissues have become a promising source of therapeutic strategies for the treatment of retinal degenerative diseases.
Stem Cell-derived Retinal Tissue A University of Colorado research group led by Dr. Canto-Soler has developed a new technique to produce a dual layer retinal tissue transplnt derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) containing a layer of photoreceptor cells and an underlying layer of retina pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells. Together, the photoreceptor and RPE layers recreate the cellular organization and functional processes of the human retina. This dual layer implant is the first to use technology that generates stem cell-derived human retinal tissue with functional light-sensitive photoreceptors (Figure 1). The new technology also allows the generation of high mature functional RPE tissue that shows the chracteristic pigmented cobblestone pattern, is polarized and expresses functional protiens of matuer RPE tissue, achieves physiological trans-epithelial resistnace and shows polarized release of bioactive moledules (Figure 2).
Download Summary Document Here:
https://cuamc.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/cu4704h_cu4705h_two_layer_retinal_tissue_transplant_for_amd_ncs_2023.pdf