Embryonic stem cells as a source of photoreceptors for retinal transplantation

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a degenerative disease causing blindness in later life. More than 30 genes have been linked to this hereditary disease. Heterogeneity of such magnitude in RP represents a major impediment to the development of therapeutics hence mutation-independent approaches have to be exploited. The loss of retinal neurons is generally regarded to be the irreversible cause and the end stage of blindness. Any strategy to restore sight in these cases would almost certainly require cell replacement or transplantation. The paper under evaluation offers methods for in vitro differentiation of murine, monkey and human embryonic stem cells into photoreceptor-like cells. This is an important step forward in the generation of cells apt for retinal transplants