Generation of Functional Retinal Pigment Epithelium from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Abstract

The availability of otherwise not readily accessible intraocular cells via induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology offers great potential for disease modelling, drug screening, and cell-based transplantation therapy in degenerative ocular disorders. Direct differentiation of iPSCs into retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is particularly straightforward, and iPSC-derived RPE cell cultures have been demonstrated to yield pure populations of functional cells that display many features of native RPE. Here, I describe a protocol for the generation of iPSC-derived RPE monolayer, their propagation, and cryostorage. A reliable monitoring for functional cell differentiation is achieved by measuring transepithelial resistance.