Embryonic stem cells
that differentiate into RPE cell precursors in vitro develop into RPE
cell monolayers in vivo
Aoki H, Hara A, Nakagawa S, Motohashi T, Hirano M, Takahashi Y and Kunisada
T
Exp Eye Res 82(2):265-74 (2006)
SUMMARY
A culture system to generate eye-like structures consisting of lens, neural
retina, and retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) cells from undifferentiated
embryonic stem cells has been established. Precursors of RPE cells that
differentiated in the cultures were responsive to Wnt2b signaling and
identified retrospectively to form secondary colonies consisting of only
RPE-like cells in eye-like structures. These transplanted eye-like structures
were capable of populating the developing chick eye as neuronal retina
and RPE cells. The outgrowth of a single cell layer of mature RPE cells
from the grafted eye-like structures confirmed the existence of precursors
for RPE cells. These results suggest that the eye-like structures resulted
from the normal developmental pathway responsible for generating eyes
in vivo. If a functional effect of these cells can be established, such
eye-like structures may be potentially used to establish therapy models
for various eye diseases.
LINK
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=16150443