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World J Stem Cells. Apr 26, 2015; 7(3): 641-648
Published online Apr 26, 2015. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v7.i3.641
Current focus of stem cell application in retinal repair
María L Alonso-Alonso, Girish K Srivastava
María L Alonso-Alonso, Girish K Srivastava, Instituto Universitario de Obtalmobiología Aplicada (IOBA), Universidad de Valladolid, 47011 Valladolid, Spain
Girish K Srivastava, Centro en Red de Medicina Regenerativa y Terapia Celular de Castilla y León, 47011 Valladolid, Spain
Author contributions: Alonso-Alonso ML and Srivastava GK contributed equally to this work.
Supported by Partially supported by grants from Junta de Castilla y León, No. VA386A12-2; and the Centro en Red de Medicina Regenerativa y Terapia Celular de la Junta de Castilla y León, 47011 Valladolid, Spain; a scholarship to María L Alonso-Alonso from the Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Castilla y León and the Fondo Social Europeo.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Girish K Srivastava, PhD, Principal Investigator, Instituto Universitario de Oftalmobiologia Aplicada (IOBA), Universidad de Valladolid, Campus Universitario Miguel Delibes, Paseo de Belén, 17, 47011 Valladolid, Spain. girish@ioba.med.uva.es
Telephone: +34-983-184753 Fax: +34-983-184762
Received: October 1, 2014
First decision: October 28, 2014
Revised: November 6, 2014
Accepted: January 15, 2015
Article in press: January 19, 2015
Published online: April 26, 2015
Abstract

The relevance of retinal diseases, both in society’s economy and in the quality of people’s life who suffer with them, has made stem cell therapy an interesting topic for research. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) are the focus in current endeavors as a source of different retinal cells, such as photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelial cells. The aim is to apply them for cell replacement as an option for treating retinal diseases which so far are untreatable in their advanced stage. ESCs, despite the great potential for differentiation, have the dangerous risk of teratoma formation as well as ethical issues, which must be resolved before starting a clinical trial. iPSCs, like ESCs, are able to differentiate in to several types of retinal cells. However, the process to get them for personalized cell therapy has a high cost in terms of time and money. Researchers are working to resolve this since iPSCs seem to be a realistic option for treating retinal diseases. ADMSCs have the advantage that the procedures to obtain them are easier. Despite advancements in stem cell application, there are still several challenges that need to be overcome before transferring the research results to clinical application. This paper reviews recent research achievements of the applications of these three types of stem cells as well as clinical trials currently based on them.

Keywords: Retina, Adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells, Embryonic stem cells, Induced pluripotent stem cells, Cell therapy

Core tip: Several retinal diseases are based on different retinal cell layer degenerations. Some of them have no treatment to date. Advances in stem cell therapy are considered a realistic option. In contrast to the early stage, the late stage of these diseases requires treatment techniques based on cell replacement. Currently, a few are in clinical trials using the sources of embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells and adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells. The focus is mainly to enhance the output of these techniques, securing faster implementation and patient safety. Nevertheless, there are many challenges still to resolve.