NIH discovery brings stem cell therapy for eye disease closer to the clinic
Stem cell-derived retinal cells need primary cilia to support survival of light-sensing photoreceptors.
Scientists at the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, report that tiny tube-like protrusions called primary cilia on cells of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) — a layer of cells in the back of the eye — are essential for the survival of the retina’s light-sensing photoreceptors. The discovery has advanced efforts to make stem cell-derived RPE for transplantation into patients with geographic atrophy, otherwise known as dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness in the U.S. The study appears in the January 2 Cell Reports.
“We now have a better idea about how to generate and replace RPE cells, which appear to be among the first type of cells to stop working properly in AMD,” said the study’s lead investigator, Kapil Bharti, Ph.D., Stadtman Investigator at the NEI. Bharti is leading the development of patient stem cell-derived RPE for an AMD clinical trial set to launch in 2018.
In a healthy eye, RPE cells nourish and support photoreceptors, the cells that convert light into electrical signals that travel to the brain via the optic nerve. RPE cells form a layer just behind the photoreceptors. In geographic atrophy, RPE cells die, which causes photoreceptors to degenerate, leading to vision loss.
Mature iPSC-derived RPE cells under super resolution
This page was last updated on Friday, January 21, 2022