Generation, purification and transplantation of photoreceptors derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells.

• Main Authors: Deepak A Lamba, Andrew McUsic, Roli K Hirata, Pei-Rong Wang, David Russell, Thomas A Reh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2010-01-01
• Series: PLoS ONE
• Online Access: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/20098701/pdf/?tool=EBI

<h4>Background</h4>Inherited and acquired retinal degenerations are frequent causes of visual impairment and photoreceptor cell replacement therapy may restore visual function to these individuals. To provide a source of new retinal neurons for cell based therapies, we developed methods to derive retinal progenitors from human ES cells.<h4>Methodology/physical findings</h4>In this report we have used a similar method to direct induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) from human fibroblasts to a retinal progenitor fate, competent to generate photoreceptors. We also found we could purify the photoreceptors derived from the iPS cells using fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) after labeling photoreceptors with a lentivirus driving GFP from the IRBP cis-regulatory sequences. Moreover, we found that when we transplanted the FACS purified iPSC derived photoreceptors, they were able to integrate into a normal mouse retina and express photoreceptor markers.<h4>Conclusions</h4>This report provides evidence that enriched populations of human photoreceptors can be derived from iPS cells.