Stem Cell Derived Retinal Pigment Epithelium Sheet on Laminin-111 Alginate Hydrogel Transplanted Sub Retinal Could Protect the Loss of Photoreceptors in RCS Rat
Alireza Ramezani1 *, Alireza Dehghani1 , Mohammad Hossein Nasr Esfahani2 , Fereshteh Karamali2 , Sareh Soroushzadeh2
- Isfahan Eye Research Center, Department of Ophthalmology, Isfahan University of Medical Science, Isfahan, Iran
- Department of Animal Biotechnology, Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Biotechnology, ACECR, Isfahan, Iran.
Abstract: Age related macular degeneration (AMD) is one the most cause of visual disorders due to impairment of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). Derivation of RPE from human embryonic stem cells is one of the valuable application for generation of RPE sheet.
Methods: RPE were achieved from hESCs. The cells were seeded on laminin-111 alginate hydrogel. After cell sheet formation, the RPE layer was harvested and characterized for specific markers. Then, the cells were transplanted as cell layer into sub retinal space of RCSs. Finally, the retinal thickness and visual function were analyzed.
Results: We introduced a scaffold-free based strategy to generate a cell layer on laminin-111 alginate hydrogel which expressed the specific structural and functional markers of RPE. Moreover, transplantation of released RPE sheet showed the increase in outer nuclear layer thickness, as well as improvement of visual acuity.
Conclusion: Our results revealed that the scaffold free RPE sheet using laminin-111 alginate hydrogel might provide appropriate strategy for future clinical cell based approach for AMD.
