Culture methods of inducing embryonic stem cells to differentiate into retinal pigment epithelial cells

• Main Authors: Ge Zhang, Han Zhu, Jing-Wen Zhang, Yu-Di Xu, Ming-Xuan Duan, undefined
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Press of International Journal of Ophthalmology (IJO PRESS) 2020-12-01
• Series: Guoji Yanke Zazhi
• Subjects: embryonic stem cells; retinal pigment epithelial cells; degenerative diseases of the retina; differentiation
• Online Access: http://ies.ijo.cn/cn_publish/2020/12/202012013.pdf

Retinal degenerative disease can lead to decreased vision, which is a blinding ophthalmopathy caused by irreversible damage or apoptosis of retinal pigment epithelium(RPE)cells or photoreceptor cells, often resulting in visual impairment or even blindness. Human embryonic stem cells(hESCs)are a kind of multi-directional differentiation cells. By appropriate methods, hESCs can be differentiated into various retinal cells. Since human PRE cells cannot be regenerated, studies have shown that the clinical treatment of retinopathy with stem cell derived RPE cell transplantation has practical prospects and has made a breakthrough in recent years. Due to the limitations of multiple factors, the selection of methods and the complexity of induction conditions, the efficiency of induced differentiation of RPE and the survival rate after transplantation vary greatly and are unstable. Therefore, the current researches should focus on how to integrate different culture methods, take advantages and eliminate disadvantages, so as to improve the directed differentiation efficiency of hESCs, as well as the number and quality of induced cells, thus reducing culture pollution and immune rejection and so on. Here, we will summarize the current examples of various culture methods and give a review from different perspectives.