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Induction of photoreceptor-specific phenotypes in adult mammalian iris tissue

Abstract

We show that iris tissue in the adult rat eye, which is embryonically related to the neural retina, can generate cells expressing differentiated neuronal antigens. In addition, the Crx gene transfer induced the specific antigens for rod photoreceptors in the iris-derived cells, which was not seen in the adult hippocampus-derived neural stem cells. Our findings demonstrate a remarkable plasticity of adult iris tissue with potential clinical applications, as autologous iris tissue can be feasibly obtained with peripheral iridectomy.

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Figure 1: Iris-derived cells expressing neural antigens.
Figure 2: Induction of rod photoreceptor-specific antigens with Crx gene transfer.
Figure 3: Induction of rhodopsin expression from mitotic progenitor-like cells.

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Acknowledgements

We thank C.L. Cepko and T. Furukawa for Crx cDNA and F.H. Gage for adult hippocampus-derived neural stem cells, J.F. McGinnis and R.J. Elias for anti-recoverin antibody and C.J. Barnstable for the information on the anti-rhodopsin antibody. This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan (No. 13671834, 13210077) and a grant from Japan Science and Technology Corporation.

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Correspondence to Masayo Takahashi.

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Haruta, M., Kosaka, M., Kanegae, Y. et al. Induction of photoreceptor-specific phenotypes in adult mammalian iris tissue. Nat Neurosci 4, 1163–1164 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn762

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