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Biomedicine

An eye on retinal recovery

Nature volume 540, pages 350–351 (2016)Cite this article

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Retinal-cell transplants restore vision in mouse models of retinal degeneration. It emerges that the transplant leads to an exchange of material between donor and host cells — not to donor-cell integration into the retina, as had been presumed.

The degeneration of the light-sensing photoreceptor neurons in the retina at the back of the eye is a cause of blindness in millions of people worldwide. One possible therapeutic approach to treating advanced photoreceptor degeneration would be to transplant healthy photoreceptor precursors into the damaged eye, in the hope that they would integrate into the retina and restore vision. Such a strategy was shown to be promising in mouse models1,2, raising the possibility of clinical trials in the near future. But three studies3,4,5 in Nature Communications report that the transplanted cells rarely integrate into the retina as previously believed — instead, they transfer some of their contents to recipient photoreceptors. This finding is a setback for efforts to replace lost photoreceptors, but might point to fresh approaches to rejuvenating aged or diseased photoreceptors and decelerating retinal degeneration.

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Figure 1: Retinal transplants under scrutiny.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Michael A. Dyer is in the Department of Developmental Neurobiology, USA. He is also in the Department of Ophthalmology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee 38105, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.,

    Michael A. Dyer

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  1. Michael A. Dyer
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Correspondence to Michael A. Dyer.

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Dyer, M. An eye on retinal recovery. Nature 540, 350–351 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20487

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