Therapy of corneal endothelial dysfunction with corneal endothelial cell-like cells derived from skin-derived precursors

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 13400 - 13
• Main Authors: Shen, Lin, Sun, Peng, Zhang, Canwei, Yang, Le, Du, Liqun, Wu, Xinyi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 17.10.2017; Nature Publishing Group UK
• Subjects: Animal models; Cornea; Corneal transplantation; Endothelial cells; Physical characteristics; Serum-free medium; Skin
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-13787-1

Corneal endothelial dysfunction occurs when corneal endothelial cells (CECs) are dramatically lost and eventually results in vision loss. Corneal transplantation is the only solution at present. However, corneal transplantation requires a fresh human cornea and there is a worldwide shortage of donors. Therefore, finding new functional CECs to replace human CECs is urgent. Skin-derived precursors (SKPs) can be easily acquired and have multiple differential potential. We co-cultured human SKPs with B4G12 cells in serum-free medium and obtained abundant CEC-like cells which had similar morphology and characteristic to human CECs. CEC-like cells exerted excellent therapeutic effect when they were transplanted into rabbit and monkey corneal endothelial dysfunction models by injection method. This protocol enables efficient production of CEC-like cells from SKPs. The renewable cell source, novel derivation method and simple treatment strategy may lead to potential applications in cell replacement therapy for corneal endothelial dysfunction.