Modalities for the treatment of degenerative diseases of the retina

摘要

This invention relates to methods for improved cell-based therapies for retinal degeneration and for differentiating human embryonic stem cells and human embryo-derived into retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells and other retinal progenitor cells.

主权项

1. A method of producing a human RPE preparation suitable for transplantation into the eye of a human patient in need thereof comprising:
(a) differentiating in vitro human pluripotent cells that express Oct-4, alkaline phosphatase, SSEA-3, SSEA-4, TRA-I-60, and TRA-I-81 under conditions that do not maintain the undifferentiated state of the pluripotent cells to obtain a heterogeneous population of human cells including pigmented cells comprising brown pigment dispersed in their cytoplasm; (b) isolating and culturing said pigmented cells from the heterogeneous cell population to obtain a monolayer comprising cells having a cobblestone, polygonal, epithelial-like appearance and brown pigment dispersed in their cytoplasm, and expressing RPE65 and bestrophin, and (c) isolating and purifying the RPE cells to form a composition suitable for human therapy.