Wang Yuyao, Zhang Dandan, Shen Bingqiao, Zhang Yi, Gu Ping
Department of Ophthalmology, Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200011, P.R. China.
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Orbital Diseases and Ocular Oncology, Shanghai, 200011, P.R. China.
Curr Stem Cell Res Ther. 2018 Feb 23;13(3):160-173. doi: 10.2174/1574888X13666171227230736.
Visual impairment caused by retinal degeneration is primarily attributed to the irreversible degradation of retinal neurons or the adjacent retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). No efficient clinical therapies to restore or improve visual ability are currently available. Cell therapy has been touted as a promising strategy to overcome this challenge.
This review aims to depict the effects and progresses of using stem/progenitor cells and biodegradable scaffolds in the treatment of retinal degenerative diseases, as well as discuss the challenges and opportunities of cell-based therapy for the future clinical application.
Progenitor/stem cells may be obtained from both ocular and non-ocular tissues. The former mainly includes retinal progenitor cells (RPCs), whereas the latter comprises embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which have been utilized in stem cell replacement therapy studies ranging from proof-of-concept animal models to clinical trials in humans. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which represent another type of stem cells, secrete anti-inflammatory cytokines and neurotrophic factors that protect and nourish retinae. Although the origins of seed cells are diverse, the cell survival rate after transplantation in vivo is limited. Therefore, cell delivery techniques that combine seed cells with polymer scaffolds are applied to improve the cell survival rate.
This review summarized the different resources of stem cells and the significant progresses in the treatment of retinal degeneration combined with seed cells and scaffolds, which may pave the way for future clinical therapies.
视网膜变性导致的视力损害主要归因于视网膜神经元或相邻的视网膜色素上皮（RPE）的不可逆退化。目前尚无有效的临床疗法来恢复或改善视力。细胞疗法被吹捧为克服这一挑战的有前景的策略。
本综述旨在描述使用干细胞/祖细胞和可生物降解支架治疗视网膜退行性疾病的效果和进展，并讨论基于细胞的疗法在未来临床应用中的挑战和机遇。
祖细胞/干细胞可从眼组织和非眼组织中获取。前者主要包括视网膜祖细胞（RPCs），而后者包括胚胎干细胞（ESCs）和诱导多能干细胞（iPSCs），它们已被用于从概念验证动物模型到人类临床试验的干细胞替代疗法研究中。间充质干细胞（MSCs）是另一种干细胞类型，可分泌抗炎细胞因子和神经营养因子来保护和滋养视网膜。尽管种子细胞的来源多种多样，但体内移植后的细胞存活率有限。因此，将种子细胞与聚合物支架相结合的细胞递送技术被应用于提高细胞存活率。
本综述总结了干细胞的不同来源以及在结合种子细胞和支架治疗视网膜变性方面取得的重大进展，这可能为未来的临床治疗铺平道路。
