Examination of an iPSC model of human eye development reveals progressive emergence of critical embryonic cell types.

ABSTRACT: Human iPSC-derived models currently used in eye research usually replicate later events of tissue differentiation rather than early steps involving concurrent development of diverse embryonic cell types. Here we present a multi-timepoint morphological and transcriptomic analysis of a 2D model mirroring the early stages of human whole eye development, self-formed ectodermal autonomous multi-zone (SEAM) of ocular cells. SEAM cultures maintained a reproducible growth profile over the standard 28-day differentiation process with quantifiable morphological changes accompanying generation of key ocular cell types over time. Bulk and single-cell RNA-seq analyses at Days 0, 14 and 28 identified dynamic transcriptomic changes indicative of the emerging cell types, including rare stem cell-like popu

SUBMITTER: Replogle MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12214497 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature