Directing Differentiation of Pluripotent Stem Cells Toward Retinal Pigment Epithelium Lineage.

ABSTRACT: Development of efficient and reproducible conditions for directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells into specific cell types is important not only to understand early human development but also to enable more practical applications, such as in vitro disease modeling, drug discovery, and cell therapies. The differentiation of stem cells to retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in particular holds promise as a source of cells for therapeutic replacement in age-related macular degeneration. Here we show development of an efficient method for deriving homogeneous RPE populations in a period of 45 days using an adherent, monolayer system and defined xeno-free media and matrices. The method utilizes sequential inhibition and activation of the Activin and bone morphogenetic protein signaling p

SUBMITTER: Choudhary P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5442825 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature