In Pursuit of Authenticity: Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Retinal Pigment Epithelium for Clinical Applications

This study provides a reference dataset to authenticate genetically diverse iPSC-RPE derived for clinical applications.

Significance
The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is essential for maintaining visual function. RPE derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC-RPE) offer a promising cell-based transplantation therapy for slowing or rescuing RPE-induced visual function loss. For effective treatment, iPSC-RPE must recapitulate the physiology of native human RPE. A set of physiologically relevant functional assays are provided that assess the polarized functional activity and maturation state of the intact RPE monolayer. The present data show that donor-to-donor variability exceeds the tissue-to-tissue variability for a given donor and provides, for the first time, criteria necessary to identify iPSC-RPE most suitable for clinical application.

Source: Stem Cells Translational Medicine - October 18, 2016 Category: Stem Cells Authors: Miyagishima, K. J., Wan, Q., Corneo, B., Sharma, R., Lotfi, M. R., Boles, N. C., Hua, F., Maminishkis, A., Zhang, C., Blenkinsop, T., Khristov, V., Jha, B. S., Memon, O. S., DSouza, S., Temple, S., Miller, S. S., Bharti, K. Tags: Pluripotent Stem Cells, Standards, Policies, Protocols, and Regulations for Cell-Based Therapies Source Type: research