title: Generation, purification and transplantation of photoreceptors derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Inherited and acquired retinal degenerations are frequent causes of visual impairment and photoreceptor cell replacement therapy may restore visual function to these individuals. To provide a source of new retinal neurons for cell based therapies, we developed methods to derive retinal progenitors from human ES cells.
  In this report we have used a similar method to direct induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) from human fibroblasts to a retinal progenitor fate, competent to generate photoreceptors. We also found we could purify the photoreceptors derived from the iPS cells using fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) after labeling photoreceptors with a lentivirus driving GFP from the IRBP cis-regulatory sequences. Moreover, we found that when we transplanted the FACS purified iPSC derived photoreceptors, they were able to integrate into a normal mouse retina and express photoreceptor markers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This report provides evidence that enriched populations of human photoreceptors can be derived from iPS cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Deepak A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Lamba
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McUsic
authors.forename: Roli K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: Pei-Rong
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Reh
mesh_terms: D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D020419:Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate / Q000378:metabolism*; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation