Stem cell-based therapies for age-related macular degeneration: current status and prospects

International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine

Guangming Su¹  Manli Zhao¹  Yalin Mu¹ 

关键词: Stem cell;    age-related macular degeneration;    retinal pigment epithelium;    clinical trial;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: e-Century Publishing Corporation

【 摘 要 】

Abstract: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the major causes of irreversible blindness both in developed and developing countries. During the past decades, the managements of neovascular AMD (wet AMD) have dramatically progressed. However, still no effective treatment for non-neovascular AMD (dry AMD) which was characterized by geographic macular atrophy. Recent advances in stem cell sciences have demonstrated that retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells can be generated from several types of stem cells (including embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, et al) by cell co-culturing or defined factors. Additionally, studies also showed that visual function could be recovered by transplantation of these cells into subretinal space in vivo. Moreover, the United States Food and Drug Administration already approved several clinical trials to evaluate the efficiencies of stem cell based cell transplantation for dry AMD patients. Till now, a few patients enrolled in these studies achieved promising outcomes. This review will summarize recent advances in stem cell based RPE differentiation, transplantation, and the preliminary results of clinical trials. The obstacles and prospects in this field will also be discussed.

【 授权许可】

Unknown