Imaging Transplanted Photoreceptors in Living Nonhuman Primates with Single-Cell Resolution

Overview

Journal Stem Cell Reports

Publisher Cell Press

Specialty Cell Biology

Date 2020 Jul 25

PMID 32707075

Citations 30

Authors

Ebrahim Aboualizadeh

M Joseph Phillips

Juliette E Mcgregor

David A DiLoreto Jr

Jennifer M Strazzeri

Kamal R Dhakal

Brittany Bateman

Lindsey D Jager

Kelsy L Nilles

Sara A Stuedemann

Allison L Ludwig

Jennifer J Hunter

William H Merigan

David M Gamm

David R Williams

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Stem cell-based transplantation therapies offer hope for currently untreatable retinal degenerations; however, preclinical progress has been largely confined to rodent models. Here, we describe an experimental platform for accelerating photoreceptor replacement therapy in the nonhuman primate, which has a visual system much more similar to the human. We deployed fluorescence adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscopy (FAOSLO) to noninvasively track transplanted photoreceptor precursors over time at cellular resolution in the living macaque. Fluorescently labeled photoreceptors generated from a CRX human embryonic stem cell (hESC) reporter line were delivered subretinally to macaques with normal retinas and following selective ablation of host photoreceptors using an ultrafast laser. The fluorescent reporter together with FAOSLO allowed transplanted photoreceptor precursor survival, migration, and neurite formation to be monitored over time in vivo. Histological examination suggested migration of photoreceptor precursors to the outer plexiform layer and potential synapse formation in ablated areas in the macaque eye.

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