Retinal degenerative diseases, which include age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma, mostly affect the elderly population and are the most common cause of decreased quality of vision or even blindness. So far, there is no satisfactory treatment protocol to prevent, stop, or cure these disorders. A great hope and promise for patients suffering from retinal diseases is represented by stem cell-based therapy that could replace diseased or missing retinal cells and support regeneration. In this respect, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that can be obtained from the particular patient and used as autologous cells have turned out to be a promising stem cell type for treatment. Here we show that MSCs can differentiate into cells expressing markers of retinal cells, inhibit production of pro-inflammatory cytokines by retinal tissue, and produce a number of growth and neuroprotective factors for retinal regeneration. All of these properties make MSCs a prospective cell type for cell-based therapy of age-related retinal degenerative diseases.

Department of Cell Biology Faculty of Natural Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Department of Transplantation Immunology Institute of Experimental Medicine The Czech Academy of Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Huang Y, Enzmann V, Ildstad ST. Stem cell-based therapeutic applications in retinal degenerative diseases. Stem Cell Rev. 2011;7(2):434–445. PubMed PMC

Nazari H, Zhang L, Zhu D, Chader GJ, Falabella P, Stefanini F, Rowland T, Clegg DO, Kashani AH, Hinton DR, et al. Stem cell based therapies for age-related macular degeneration: the promises and the challenges. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2015;48:1–39. PubMed

Abumaree M, Al Jumah M, Pace RA, Kalionis B. Immunosuppressive properties of mesenchymal stem cells. Stem Cell Rev. 2012;8(2):375–392. PubMed

Zajicova A, Pokorna K, Lencova A, Krulova M, Svobodova E, Kubinova S, Sykova E, Pradny M, Michalek J, Svobodova J, et al. Treatment of ocular surface injuries by limbal and mesenchymal stem cells growing on nanofiber scaffolds. Cell Transplant. 2010;19(10):1281–1290. PubMed

English K. Mechanisms of mesenchymal stromal cell immunomodulation. Immunol Cell Biol. 2013;91(1):19–26. PubMed

Mathivanan I, Trepp C, Brunold C, Baerlocher G, Enzmann V. Retinal differentiation of human bone marrow-derived stem cells by co-culture with retinal pigment epithelium in vitro. Exp Cell Res. 2015;333(1):11–20. PubMed

Javorkova E, Trosan P, Zajicova A, Krulova M, Hajkova M, Holan V. Modulation of the early inflammatory microenvironment in the alkali-burned eye by systemically administered interferon-γ-treated mesenchymal stromal cells. Stem Cells Dev. 2014;23(20):2490–2500. PubMed PMC

Chudickova M, Bruza P, Zajicova A, Trosan P, Svobodova L, Javorkova E, Kubinova S, Holan V. Targeted neural differentiation of murine mesenchymal stem cells by a protocol simulating the inflammatory site of neural injury. J Tissue Eng Regen Med. 2017;11(5):1588–1597. doi:10.1002/term.2059. PubMed

Holan V, Trosan P, Cejka C, Javorkova E, Zajicova A, Hermankova B, Chudickova M, Cejkova J. A comparative study of the therapeutic potential of mesenchymal stem cells and limbal epithelial stem cells for ocular surface reconstruction. Stem Cells Transl Med. 2015;4(9):1052–1063. PubMed PMC

Chiou SH, Kao CL, Peng CH, Chen SJ, Tarng YW, Ku HH, Chen YC, Shyr YM, Liu RS, Hsu CJ, et al. A novel in vitro retinal differentiation model by co-culturing adult human bone marrow stem cells with retinal pigmented epithelium cells. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2005;326(3):578–585. PubMed

Park SS, Moisseiev E, Bauer G, Anderson JD, Grant MB, Zam A, Zawadzki RJ, Werner JS, Nolta JA. Advances in bone marrow stem cell therapy for retinal dysfunction. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2017;56:148–165. PubMed PMC

Ng TK, Yung JS. Research progress and human clinical trials of mesenchymal stem cells in ophthalmology: a mini review. SM Ophthalmol J. 2015;1(1):1003–1011.

Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Based Therapy for Retinal Degenerative Diseases: Experimental Models and Clinical Trials

Cytokine interplay among the diseased retina, inflammatory cells and mesenchymal stem cells - a clue to stem cell-based therapy