Induced pluripotent stem cell therapies for retinal disease

Abstract

Purpose of review: This review will discuss how recent advances with induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have brought the science of stem cell biology much closer to clinical application for patients with retinal degeneration. Recent findings:The ability to generate embryonic stem (ES) cells by reprogramming DNA taken from adult cells was demonstrated by the cloning of Dolly the sheep by somatic cell nuclear transfer over ten years ago. Recently it has been shown that adult cells can be reprogrammed directly, without the need for a surrogate oocyte through the generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The method of reprogramming has since been optimised to avoid the use of retroviruses, making the process considerably safer. Last year human iPS cells were isolated from an 80 year old patient with neurodegenerative disease and differentiated into neurons in vitro.Summary: For stem cell therapies, the retina has the optimal combination of ease of surgical access, combined with an ability to observe transplanted cells directly through the clear ocular media. The question now is which retinal diseases are most appropriate targets for clinical trials using iPS cell approaches.

La révolution 3D des cellules souches : fabrication d’une rétinein vitro

“…Le défi était de déterminer la combinaison de facteurs la plus appropriée [3,4]. L'équipe de Yoshiki Sasai a mis au point un protocole séquentiel de culture pour diriger des CSE murines vers un destin rétinien [5].…”

Induced pluripotent stem cells for modelling human diseases

“…While this paper did not model a specific retinal disease, with the systems established here, studies of disease-specific retinal cells should soon follow. Expectations for these cells are high [32] and it is thought that retinal degeneration is an example of a disease most amenable to treatment with iPS cells.…”

Emerging Gene Therapies for Retinal Degenerations

“…Other approaches, such as engraftment of retinal neurons derived from stem cells (Comyn et al, 2010;Bermingham-McDonogh and Reh, 2011;Rowland et al, 2012) and implantation of prosthetic devices (Chader et al, 2009), are also being developed, but are beyond the scope of this paper. It is likely that some very effective therapies will be combinatorial, such as engineering engrafted photoreceptor cells to secrete growth factors.…”