Glaucoma in mice was cured with stem cells

Oleg Lischuk, N+1

American scientists have managed to restore intraocular pressure in mice with glaucoma by stem cell transplantation.  The report on the work was published in PNAS (Zhu et al., Transplantation of iPSC-derived TM cells rescues glaucoma phenotypes in vivo).

Glaucoma is a disease in which the normal circulation of intraocular fluid is disrupted, which leads to an increase in intraocular pressure (IOP) and, as a consequence, to degeneration of retinal ganglion cells and progressive deterioration of vision up to complete blindness. The most common is open-angle glaucoma, in which an increase in IOP is associated with a violation of the outflow of intraocular fluid from the anterior chamber of the eye through the trabecular network caused by dysfunction and death of cells of this structure.

University of Iowa researchers obtained induced pluripotent stem cells from mouse fibroblasts. These cells were differentiated into primary cells of the trabecular network, purified and transplanted into the anterior chamber of the eye to transgenic mice with open-angle glaucoma. The transplant was performed at the age of four months, when the loss of trabecular network cells begins and the first signs of IOP growth appear. Transgenic mice from the control group were injected with a sodium-phosphate buffer solution without cells.

In mice from the control group, a marked deterioration in fluid outflow and an increase in IOP were observed six weeks after injection and worsened by the end of the ninth week. In animals treated with stem cells, these indicators remained normal throughout the nine-week follow-up period.

Histological examination of the retina 12 weeks after the intervention showed that the density of retinal ganglion cells in mice from the control group is significantly lower than in healthy animals (on average 1706.9 versus 2171.9 cells per square millimeter). After treatment with stem cells, the density of these cells remained normal (2222.1 cells per square millimeter). A similar pattern was observed with respect to the cells of the trabecular network.

Observation of the proliferation of induced stem cells in vitro and their in vivo transcription analysis showed that, although the transplanted cells remained viable for at least 12 weeks, the proliferation of their own trabecular network cells caused by them was responsible for the main effect of therapy.

Having developed a promising method for the treatment of open-angle glaucoma, the researchers intend to test its effectiveness in other forms of this disease.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  07.06.2016