Name: Subretinal Transplantation of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Retinal Tissue in a Feline Large Animal Model (Video) | JoVE Journal
Uploaded: 2021-08-05T13:00:00.000+00:00
Duration: 7 min 43 s
Description: Learn subretinal transplantation of human pluripotent stem cell-derived retinal organoids for retinal degeneration therapy using a feline model. This surgical technique enables direct delivery to target retinal tissue.

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This work was funded by NEI Fast-track SBIR grant R44-EY027654-01A1&#160;and SBIR grant 3 R44 EY 027654 - 02 S1 (I.O.N., Lineage Cell Therapeutics; Dr. Petersen-Jones is a co-PI). The authors would like to thank Ms. Janice Querubin (MSU RATTS) for her help with anesthesia and general care for the animals included in this study as well as help with surgical setting and instruments preparation/sterilization. The authors would like to thank Dr. Paige Winkler for the help in receiving the organoids and placing them in media on the day prior to the implantation and for the help on the day of the implantation. The authors are also grateful to Mr. Randy Garchar (LCTX) for diligent shipping of retinal organoids, assembling the shipper, and downloading temperature and G-stress-records after each shipment. This work was performed while author Igor Nasonkin was employed by&#160;Biotime (now Lineage).

Ratnesh K. Singh, Ph.D., Francois Binette, Ph.D., and Igor O. Nasonkin Ph.D. are employees of Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Implantation of hPSC-derived retinal tissue (retinal organoids) into the subretinal space is a promising experimental approach for restoring vision for late-stage retinal degenerative diseases caused by PR cell death (profound or terminal blindness). The presented approach builds on an earlier developed and successfully tested experimental therapy based on subretinal grafting of a piece of human fetal retinal tissue23,24,25. It ...

Millions of people around the world are impacted by retinal degeneration (RD) with resulting visual impairment or blindness associated with loss of the light-sensing photoreceptors (PRs). Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a major cause of blindness resulting from a combination of genetic risk factors and environmental/lifestyle factors. In addition, over 200 genes and loci have been found to cause inherited RD (IRD)1. Retinitis pigmentosa (RP), the commonest IRD, is genetically heterogenous with more than 3,000 genetic mutations in approximately 70 genes being reported2,3,4. Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), which causes blindness in childhood is also genetically heterogenous5,6. Gene augmentation therapy has been developed and is in clinical trials for treating a small number of IRDs3,7. However, a separate therapy must be developed for the treatment of each distinct genetic form of IRD and thereby only treating a small subset of patients. Furthermore, gene augmentation relies on the presence of a population of rescuable photoreceptors and is, therefore, not applicable for advanced degeneration.
There is, therefore, an urgent and yet unmet clinical need for the development of therapies addressing and treating advanced RDs and profound to terminal blindness. Over the last 2 decades neuroprosthetic implants have been developed and tested in large animal models, such as the cat, prior to human use8,9,10,11,12,13,14. Likewise, in the past 20 years retinal replacement therapies utilizing sheets of embryonic or even mature mammalian retina grafted subretinally have been developed15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22 and even tested successfully in RD patients23,24,25. Both approaches utilize the idea of introducing new sensors (photovoltaic silicon photodiodes in the case of neuroprosthetic devices26,27, and healthy mutation-free photoreceptors organized in sheets, in the case of retinal sheet implantation) into retina with degenerated PRs. Recent studies have investigated the use of stem cells-based approaches such as transplantation of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived retinal progenitors28,29, hPSC-photoreceptors30, and hPSC-retinal organoids31,32,33. Retinal organoids enable the formation of retinal tissue in a dish and derivation of photoreceptor sheets with thousands of mutation-free PRs, which resemble the photoreceptor layer in the developing human fetal retina34,35,36,37,38,39,40. Transplanting hPSC-derived retinal tissue (organoids) into the subretinal space of patients with RD conditions is one of the new and promising investigational cell therapy approaches, being pursued by a number of teams31,32,41,42. Compared to transplantation of the cell suspension (of young photoreceptors or retinal progenitors), transplanted sheets of fetal photoreceptors were demonstrated to result in vision improvements in clinical trials23,24.
The protocol presented here describes, in detail, a transplantation procedure for subretinal delivery of the whole retinal organoids (rather than organoid rims33,41) as a potentially better way to introduce intact retinal sheets with PRs, to increase graft survival and improve the sheet preservation. Though procedures for introducing a flat piece of human retina and also RPE patches have been developed43,44,45, transplantation of larger 3D grafts has not been investigated. Stem cell-derived retinal organoids provide an inexhaustible source of photoreceptor sheets for developing vision restoration technologies, are free of ethical restriction, and are considered an excellent source of human retinal tissue for therapies focused on treating advanced RD and terminal blindness46. Development of surgical methods for precise subretinal implantation of retinal organoids with minimal injury to the host retinal niche (neural retina, retinal pigment epithelium and retinal and choroidal vasculature) is one of the critical steps for advancing such therapy toward clinical applications31,32. Large animal models such as cats, dogs, pigs, and monkeys have proven to be good models for investigating surgical delivery methods as well as to demonstrate the safety of implanted sheets of tissue (retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells) and investigate the use of organoids41,44,45,47,48,49,50. The large animal eye has a similar globe size to human as well as similar anatomy including the presence of a region of high photoreceptor density, including cones (the area centralis), resembling the human macula6,51,52.
In this manuscript, a technique for the implantation of hPSC-derived retinal tissue (organoids) into the subretinal space of feline large animal models (both wild-type and CrxRdy/+ cats) is described, which, together with promising efficacy results32,53 builds a foundation for further development of such investigational therapy toward clinical applications to treat RD conditions.

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subretinal transplantation of human embryonic stem cell-derived retinal tissue in a feline large animal model

Subretinal Transplantation of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Retinal Tissue in a Feline Large Animal Model

Retinal degenerative (RD) conditions associated with photoreceptor loss such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) cause progressive and debilitating vision loss. There is an unmet need for therapies that can restore vision once photoreceptors have been lost. Transplantation of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived retinal tissue (organoids) into the subretinal space of an eye with advanced RD brings retinal tissue sheets with thousands of healthy mutation-free photoreceptors and has a potential to treat most/all blinding diseases associated with photoreceptor degeneration with one approved protocol. Transplantation of fetal retinal tissue into the subretinal space of animal models and people with advanced RD has been developed successfully but cannot be used as a routine therapy due to ethical concerns and limited tissue supply. Large eye inherited retinal degeneration (IRD) animal models are valuable for developing vision restoration therapies utilizing advanced surgical approaches to transplant retinal cells/tissue into the subretinal space. The similarities in globe size, and photoreceptor distribution (e.g., presence of macula-like region area centralis) and availability of IRD models closely recapitulating human IRD would facilitate rapid translation of a promising therapy to the clinic. Presented here is a surgical technique of transplanting hPSC-derived retinal tissue into the subretinal space of a large animal model allowing assessment of this promising approach in animal models.

This procedure enables the successful and reproducible implantation of hPSC-derived retinal organoids in the subretinal space of a large eye animal model (demonstrated here using 2 examples: wild-type cats with healthy photoreceptors (PRs) and CrxRdy/+ cats with degenerating PRs and retina). Using the steps indicated in Figure 1 prepare and load the hPSC-derived retinal organoids into the borosilicate glass cannula of the injection device so that the organoids ar...

Presented here is a surgical technique for transplanting human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived retinal tissue into the subretinal space of a large animal model.

Retinal degenerative (RD) conditions associated with photoreceptor loss such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and ...

subretinal-transplantation-human-embryonic-stem-cell-derived-retinal

Research

JoVE Journal

Neuroscience

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Learn subretinal transplantation of human pluripotent stem cell-derived retinal organoids for retinal degeneration therapy using a feline model. This surgical technique enables direct delivery to target retinal tissue.

Subretinal Transplantation of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Retinal Tissue in a Feline Large Animal Model

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