Perspectives of Stem Cell–Based Therapy for Age-Related Retinal Degenerative Diseases

Retinal degenerative diseases, which include age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma, mostly affect the elderly population and are the most common cause of decreased quality of vision or even blindness. So far, there is no satisfactory treatment pro...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cell transplantation 2017-09, Vol.26 (9), p.1538-1541
Main Authors: Holan, Vladimir, Hermankova, Barbora, Kossl, Jan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Autografts
Blindness
Cell differentiation
Cytokines
Degenerative diseases
Diabetes mellitus
Diabetic retinopathy
Glaucoma
Inflammation
Macular degeneration
Mesenchymal stem cells
Mesenchyme
Neuroprotection
Older people
Original
Regeneration
Retina
Retinal degeneration
Retinitis
Retinitis pigmentosa
Retinopathy
Stem cells
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Retinal degenerative diseases, which include age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma, mostly affect the elderly population and are the most common cause of decreased quality of vision or even blindness. So far, there is no satisfactory treatment protocol to prevent, stop, or cure these disorders. A great hope and promise for patients suffering from retinal diseases is represented by stem cell–based therapy that could replace diseased or missing retinal cells and support regeneration. In this respect, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that can be obtained from the particular patient and used as autologous cells have turned out to be a promising stem cell type for treatment. Here we show that MSCs can differentiate into cells expressing markers of retinal cells, inhibit production of pro-inflammatory cytokines by retinal tissue, and produce a number of growth and neuroprotective factors for retinal regeneration. All of these properties make MSCs a prospective cell type for cell-based therapy of age-related retinal degenerative diseases.
ISSN:0963-6897
1555-3892
DOI:10.1177/0963689717721227