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Toward the generation of rod and cone photoreceptors from mouse, monkey and human embryonic stem cells

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 01 March 2008

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Abstract

We previously reported the differentiation of mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells into retinal progenitors. However, these progenitors rarely differentiate into photoreceptors unless they are cultured with embryonic retinal tissues. Here we show the in vitro generation of putative rod and cone photoreceptors from mouse, monkey and human ES cells by stepwise treatments under defined culture conditions, in the absence of retinal tissues. With mouse ES cells, Crx+ photoreceptor precursors were induced from Rx+ retinal progenitors by treatment with a Notch signal inhibitor. Further application of fibroblast growth factors, Shh, taurine and retinoic acid yielded a greater number of rhodopsin+ rod photoreceptors, in addition to default cone production. With monkey and human ES cells, feeder- and serum-free suspension culture combined with Wnt and Nodal inhibitors induced differentiation of Rx+ or Mitf+ retinal progenitors, which produced retinal pigment epithelial cells. Subsequent treatment with retinoic acid and taurine induced photoreceptor differentiation. These findings may facilitate the development of human ES cell–based transplantation therapies for retinal diseases.

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Figure 1: Efficient generation of photoreceptor precursors from FACS-purified ES cell–derived neural retinal progenitors using a γ-secretase inhibitor.
Figure 2: Effect of DAPT treatment on retinal cells.
Figure 3: Promotion of rhodopsin+ photoreceptor differentiation with FGFs, taurine, Shh and retinoic acid.
Figure 4: Directed differentiation of RPE cells from monkey ES cells in serum- and feeder-independent cultures.
Figure 5: Retinoic acid and taurine promote differentiation into photoreceptor cells.
Figure 6: Generation of RPE cells and photoreceptors from human ES cells.

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Zixuan Zhao, Xinyi Chen, … Hanry Yu

Change history

  • 26 February 2008

    In the version of this article initially published, one author’s name, the density of ES cells and the composition of RA/T medium are incorrect. The errors have been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Takahashi (Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan) for providing the monkey ES cell line, H. Suemori and N. Nakatsuji (Kyoto University) for providing the human ES cell line, S. Nakagawa (RIKEN, Japan), T. Kume, H. Katsuki (Kyoto University), M. Haruta and M. Akimoto (Kyoto University Hospital) for valuable comments on this work, S. Nishikawa, M. Osawa and T. Era (RIKEN) for advice on FACS, K. Iseki and S. Yonemura (Riken) for the electron microscopic analysis, T. Yokota, A. Nomori, N. Ishibashi and A. Nishiyama for excellent technical assistance, and members of the Takahashi laboratory, the Sasai laboratory and the Akaike laboratory for discussions. This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the Leading Project (M.T. and Y.S.). This study was also supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Mochida Memorial Foundation for Medical and Pharmaceutical Research (F.O.).

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F.O. designed research, performed experiments, wrote the paper and provided financial support. H.I. designed research, performed experiments and wrote the paper. M.M., T.W. and K.W. performed experiments. N.Y., A.A. and Y.S. coordinated the project. M.T. provided financial support and supervised the whole project. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Masayo Takahashi.

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Osakada, F., Ikeda, H., Mandai, M. et al. Toward the generation of rod and cone photoreceptors from mouse, monkey and human embryonic stem cells. Nat Biotechnol 26, 215–224 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1384

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