[Retinal regeneration with iPS cells ‒ Clinical trials for retinal degenerative disorders]

Potential for re-programming cells has become widely accepted as a tool for obtaining transplantation materials. There has been great interest in cell-based therapies, including retinal transplants, because there is a reduced risk of immune rejection. Stem cells have the capacity for self-renewal plus the capacity to generate several differentiated cells. They are derived from many sources including human adult-derived induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and have found early application in the context of ocular disease. In results, our established iPS-retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells are high-quality RPE cells. iPS cells-derived RPE cells clearly showed polygonal morphology (mostly hexagonal) and contained melanin. Moreover, RPE cells derived from iPS cells had many characteristics of mature RPE cells in vivo, but no characteristics of pluripotent stem cells. Recently, we transplanted RPE cell sheets to treat a patient with wet age-related macular degeneration (September, 2014). In addition, we are now conducting experiments to determine whether allogeneic T cells can recognize iPS-RPE cells from HLA-A, B, DRB1 locus homozygote donors. iPS bank might be useful as allografts in retinal disorders, if the recipient T cells cannot respond to allogeneic RPE cells because of match to some of main HLA antigens.