Fluorescent reporter pluripotent stem cell-derived retinal organoids are powerful tools to investigate cell type-specific development and disease phenotypes. When combined with live imaging, they enable direct and repeated observation of cell behaviors within a developing retinal tissue. Here, we generated a human cone photoreceptor reporter line by CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing of WTC11-mTagRFPT-LMNB1 human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by inserting enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) coding sequences and a 2A self-cleaving peptide at the N-terminus of guanine nucleotide-binding protein subunit alpha transducin 2 (GNAT2). In retinal organoids generated from these iPSCs, the GNAT2-EGFP alleles robustly and exclusively labeled immature and mature cones. Episodic confocal live imaging of hydrogel immobilized retinal organoids allowed tracking of the morphological maturation of individual cones for >18 weeks and revealed inner segment accumulation of mitochondria and growth at 12.2 μm3 per day from day 126 to day 153. Immobilized GNAT2-EGFP cone reporter organoids provide a valuable tool for investigating human cone development and disease.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/dmm.050193 | DOI Listing |
J Transl Med
January 2025
Department of Ophthalmology, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Jiefang Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430060, China.
Diabetic retinopathy is a major ocular complication of diabetes, characterized by progressive retinal microvascular damage and significant visual impairment in working-age adults. Traditional bulk RNA sequencing offers overall gene expression profiles but does not account for cellular heterogeneity. Single-cell RNA sequencing overcomes this limitation by providing transcriptomic data at the individual cell level and distinguishing novel cell subtypes, developmental trajectories, and intercellular communications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Mol Sci
December 2024
Department of Ophthalmology, Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, The Netherlands.
Viral vector delivery of gene therapy represents a promising approach for the treatment of numerous retinal diseases. Adeno-associated viral vectors (AAV) constitute the primary gene delivery platform; however, their limited cargo capacity restricts the delivery of several clinically relevant retinal genes. In this study, we explore the feasibility of employing high-capacity adenoviral vectors (HC-AdVs) as alternative delivery vehicles, which, with a capacity of up to 36 kb, can potentially accommodate all known retinal gene coding sequences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Protoc
January 2025
Department of Ophthalmology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-based disease modeling can be successfully recapitulated to mimic disease characteristics across various human pathologies. Glaucoma, a progressive optic neuropathy, primarily affects the retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). While multiple groups have successfully generated RGCs from non-diseased hiPSCs, producing RGCs from glaucomatous human samples holds significant promise for understanding disease pathology by revealing patient-specific disease signatures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStargardt disease is a currently untreatable, inherited neurodegenerative disease that leads to macular degeneration and blindness due to loss-of-function mutations in the ABCA4 gene. We have designed a dual adeno-associated viral vector encoding a split-intein adenine base editor to correct the most common mutation in ABCA4 (c.5882G>A, p.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenes (Basel)
November 2024
Institute of Medical Molecular Genetics, University of Zurich, 8952 Schlieren, Switzerland.
Stargardt disease (STGD1) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by pathogenic variants in that affects the retina and is characterised by progressive central vision loss. The onset of disease manifestations varies from childhood to early adulthood. Whole exome (WES), whole gene, and whole genome sequencing (WGS) were performed for a patient with STGD1.
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