Abstract
Purpose :
To identify the neuroprotective effects of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) on grafted mouse retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) after transplantation.
Methods :
For in vitro studies, human iPSCs were either directly co-cultured with mouse RGCs or plated in hanging inserts above a RGC culture for 1 week. For ex vivo studies, RGCs and iPSCs were dropped onto the inner surface of an adult rat retina explant and cultured for 1 week. For in vivo studies, RGCs were intravitreally injected, with iPSCs either intravitrally co-injected or subretinally injected, into an adult rat eye 1 week before sacrifice and retina dissection.
Results :
A dose-dependent increase of RGC survival rate was found in RGC-iPSC direct co-cultures, while RGC-iPSC indirect co-cultures also showed a similar RGC protective effect, but to a lesser extent than a direct co-culture. Almost 5 times RGC survival was also identified from RGC-iPSC co-transplantations both ex vivo and in vivo. In addition, RGCs from the co-transplantation was found to double the neurite length per grafted live RGC than RGC-only transplants in vivo.
Conclusions :
Human iPSCs promote transplanted RGC survival and neurite extension, which may be through secretion of neuroprotective compounds.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.