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Research focused on stem cells to replace, repair retinal ganglion cells
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WAIKOLOA, Hawaii — Researchers are making strides in stem cell therapy in the treatment of glaucoma, but many questions remain unanswered, a speaker told colleagues here.
“We’re very excited about progress being made in our lab and in others,” Jeffrey L. Goldberg, MD, PhD, said at Hawaiian Eye 2016. “Retinal ganglion cell differentiation, we’re starting to learn the molecular features of that. Transplantation, we have to focus on how to make a good retinal ganglion cell integrate properly. And there are a lot of additional questions that are getting us to move toward human therapy.”
Jeffrey L. Goldberg
The main areas of research are neuroprotection, regeneration and neuroenhancement of retinal ganglion cells, Goldberg said.
“The fundamental problem that we have in glaucoma, just like spinal cord injury or other neurodegenerations, is that there’s no retinal ganglion cell regeneration after optic nerve injury, after those axons get injured in glaucoma,” Goldberg said.
Research is focused on embryonic progenitor stem cells, he said.
“These are the stem cells ... that normally turn into retinal ganglion cells. We can figure out retinal ganglion cells ... because they express certain markers that we can stain for,” he said.
Two genes, SOX4 and SOX11, seem to promote retinal ganglion cell differentiation from human-induced pluripotent stem cells that can be obtained from skin or cheek swabs, Goldberg said.
“Of course, they avoid all of the human embryonic stem cell controversy,” he said. “We’re beginning to make sense out of how to turn a stem cell into a retinal ganglion cell.”
Primary retinal ganglion cells transplanted into the vitreous can survive, Goldberg said.
Research has shown that stem cell-derived retinal ganglion cells produce fewer synapses than primary retinal ganglion cells, he said.
“So, there’s still something left to learn about how to get them to fully differentiate the best we can do,” Goldberg said.
Retinal ganglion cells transplanted in vivo respond to light stimulation, he said. – by Matt Hasson and Patricia Nale, ELS
Reference:
Goldberg JL. Regenerating the optic nerve: stem cells for glaucoma. Presented at: Hawaiian Eye; Jan. 16-22, 2016; Waikoloa, Hawaii.
Disclosure: Goldberg reports no relevant financial disclosures.