Abstract
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), featured with dysfunction and loss of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), is lacking efficient therapeutic approaches. According to our previous studies, human amniotic epithelial stem cells (hAESCs) may serve as a potential seed cell source of RPE cells for therapy because they have no ethical concerns, no tumorigenicity, and little immunogenicity. Herein, trichostatin A and nicotinamide can direct hAESCs differentiation into RPE like cells. The differentiated cells display the morphology, marker expression and cellular function of the native RPE cells, and noticeably express little MHC class II antigens and high level of HLA-G. Moreover, visual function and retinal structure of Royal College of Surgeon (RCS) rats, a classical animal model of retinal degeneration, were rescued after subretinal transplantation with the hAESCs-derived RPE like cells. Our study possibly makes some contribution to the resource of functional RPE cells for cell therapy. Subretinal transplantation of hAESCs-RPE could be an optional therapeutic strategy for retinal degeneration diseases.
Highlights
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the typical retinal degeneration disease, is the major cause of irreversible vision loss among senior citizens
According to our previous studies (Li et al, 2018; Tan et al, 2018), we first confirmed the purity, pluripotency and non-tumorigenicity of isolated human amniotic epithelial stem cells (hAESCs), and we cultured them in a serum-free system for further study
Negative expression of the hematopoietic lineage markers CD45, CD34 and endothelial marker CD31 were detected by flow cytometry, indicating the purity of hAESCs without contamination (Figures 1C–E)
Summary
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the typical retinal degeneration disease, is the major cause of irreversible vision loss among senior citizens. The projected number of people with AMD globally is approximately 200 million in 2020, and it is expected to increase to nearly 300 million in 2040 (Wong et al, 2014). In AMD, the early events of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) dysfunction usually lead to photoreceptor degeneration, resulting in progressive visual loss and blindness (Luthert, 2011). Patients with wet AMD lose vision because of the growth of abnormal blood vessels (choroidal neovascularization, CNV), while patients with dry AMD, which represents approximately 90% of AMD cases, suffer vision loss as a result of geographic atrophy (GA) of the PRs, RPE, and choriocapillaris in the macular area (Ambati and Fowler, 2012). With the development of stem cell technology, cell therapy is a promising therapeutic strategy for retinal degenerative diseases (Ramsden et al, 2013; Trounson and McDonald, 2015; Zarbin, 2016)
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