First artificial retina made from human stem cells

Japanese researchers said Thursday they have succeeded in creating the world's first artificial retina from human embryotic stem cells, hoping to improve treatments for eye diseases including pigmentary degeneration of the retina. The new development was announced by a team of researchers led by Dr. Yoshiki Sasai at Riken Kobe Institute based in the western Japanese city of Kobe. According to the institute, after the team demonstrated in test tube an optic cup structure formed by self-organization in human embryotic stem cell (ESC), they then successfully created the artificial neural retina which is five millimeters in diameter, by 126 days. The team has developed the new method since last spring, using mouse ESC first. The team stressed that the human ESC-derived neural retina could grow into multilayered tissue containing rods and cones although cone differentiation was rare in the mouse ESC culture. The institute's Science Chief Coordinator Naoki Namba told media that the human ESC-derived neural retina can work to convert light from outside into electrical signals, expecting to further bring about a versatile solution for quality control in large-scale preparation of clinical retinal tissues after experiments on other animals such as monkey.(QNA)