Stem cell therapies for age-related macular degeneration: the past, present, and future.

ABSTRACT: In the developed world, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the major causes of irreversible blindness in the elderly. Although management of neovascular AMD (wet AMD) has dramatically progressed, there is still no effective treatment for nonneovascular AMD (dry AMD), which is characterized by retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell death (or dysfunction) and microenvironmental disruption in the retina. Therefore, RPE replacement and microenvironmental regulation represent viable treatments for dry AMD. Recent advances in cell biology have demonstrated that RPE cells can be easily generated from several cell types (pluripotent stem cells, multipotent stem cells, or even somatic cells) by spontaneous differentiation, coculturing, defined factors or cell reprogramming, respectivel

SUBMITTER: Dang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4298283 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature