About stem cells has long been hoped for help in the treatment of eye diseases and even blindness.
New retinal cells have already been grown from stem cells, but it is still not enough. In order for vision to be corrected, new cells must be able to form connections with neighboring cells.
On the retina there are several interconnected cell types through which visual information is transferred to the optic nerve and further to the visual cortex. Visual perception is only created in the cerebral cortex.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the United States have now made retinal cells grown in the laboratory from stem cells communicate with neighboring cells.
The group has obtained such promising results in laboratory experiments that the method may soon be tested on humans.
Researchers were raised more than a decade ago, organoids resembling retinal tissue. Organoids are cell cultures similar to the structure of tissues, where stem cells and their neighboring cells are often grown for months.
Professor of Ophthalmology David Gamm and colleagues programmed cells isolated from human skin to act as multipotent stem cells, which developed into several different retinal cell types.
The team wanted to use cells obtained from organoids and use them to replace cells that have been lost in retinal degeneration.
Last year, researchers showed that retinal sensory cells grown in laboratory dishes functioned properly even after they had been separated from the organoid’s neighboring cells.
Cell exporter branches began to reach out towards their new neighbors.
“The last piece of the puzzle was to see if these forks could connect to other retinal cell types to communicate,” Gamm says in the bulletin.
In the laboratory the grown cells were able to form synapses, i.e. junctions between two neurons, where information is transferred between the cells.
The researchers showed that the connection works by using a cell-to-cell virus.
The most synapses were formed by sensory cells, i.e. rods and pins, which are damaged in age-related macular degeneration of the fundus, i.e. retina, and hereditary pigmentary degeneration of the retina.
Retinal ganglion cells, which degenerate in optic nerve-damaging eye pressure disease, were the second most enthusiastic about the connections.
Research published by Pnas Journal of the American Academy of Sciences.
Published in Tiede magazine 3/23.
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