Newcastle University, Institute of Genetic Medicine, International Centre for Life, Central Parkway, Newcastle, NE1 3BZ, UK.
Biomedicine West, International Centre for Life, Times Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4EP, UK.
Adv Healthc Mater. 2018 Dec;7(23):e1800226. doi: 10.1002/adhm.201800226. Epub 2018 Sep 2.
The prevalence of degenerative retinal disease is ever increasing as life expectancy rises globally. The human retina fails to regenerate and the use of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to engineer retinal tissue is of particular interest due to the limited availability of suitable allogeneic or autologous tissue. Retinal tissue and its development are well characterized, which have resulted in robust assays to assess the development of tissue-engineered retina. Retinal tissue can be generated in vitro from hESCs and hiPSCs without biomaterial scaffolds, but despite advancements, protocols remain slow, expensive, and fail to result in mature functional tissue. Several recent studies have demonstrated the potential of biomaterial scaffolds to enhance generation of hESC/hiPSC-derived retinal tissue, including synthetic polymers, silk, alginate, hyaluronic acid, and extracellular matrix molecules. This review outlines the advances that have been made toward tissue-engineered neural retina and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) for clinical application in recent years, including the success of clinical trials involving transplantation of cells and tissue to promote retinal repair; and the evidence from in vitro and animal studies that biomaterials can enhance development and integration of retinal tissue.
随着全球预期寿命的延长，退行性视网膜疾病的患病率不断上升。由于同种异体或自体组织的可用性有限，利用人类胚胎干细胞（hESCs）和人类诱导多能干细胞（hiPSCs）来工程化视网膜组织引起了特别关注。视网膜组织及其发育特征明确，这使得评估组织工程化视网膜发育的检测方法具有强大的作用。可以在没有生物材料支架的情况下从 hESC 和 hiPSC 体外生成视网膜组织，但尽管取得了进展，方案仍然缓慢、昂贵，且无法产生成熟的功能性组织。最近的几项研究表明，生物材料支架有可能增强 hESC/hiPSC 衍生的视网膜组织的生成，包括合成聚合物、丝、藻酸盐、透明质酸和细胞外基质分子。本文综述了近年来在组织工程化神经视网膜和视网膜色素上皮（RPE）方面取得的进展，包括涉及细胞和组织移植以促进视网膜修复的临床试验的成功；以及来自体外和动物研究的证据表明，生物材料可以增强视网膜组织的发育和整合。
