Potential Glaucoma Treatment Strategy

Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide, and vision loss, due to the loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), cannot currently be reversed with any treatment. 

Some studies have looked at replacing RGCs through cell transplants, but this process is still in the research and development stage and fraught with limitations that highlight a need for a more precise manner of effectively repopulating these cells in the retina. Now, a multidisciplinary team led by researchers at the Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass Eye and Ear has identified a promising new strategy for glaucoma cell replacement therapy.

In their new study, researchers changed the microenvironment in the eye in a way that enabled them to take stem cells from blood and turn them into retinal ganglion cells that were capable of migrating and surviving into the eye’s retina. 

They conducted their study on the adult mouse retina, but the work’s implications could one day be applied to human retina, according to the researchers who published their findings November 6th in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

One limitation that prevents the success of current stem cell transplantation strategies in retina studies is that the majority of donor cells remain at the site of injection and do not migrate where they are most needed. 

To identify an improved solution, the researchers created RGCs out of stem cells, then tested the ability of various signaling molecules known as chemokines to guide these new neurons to their correct positions within the retina. The research team utilized a “big data” approach and examined hundreds of such molecules and receptors to find 12 unique to RGCs. They found stromal derived factor 1 was the best performing molecule for both migration and transplantation.

Sources:

Jonathan R. Soucy, Levi Todd, Emil Kriukov, Monichan Phay, Volha V. Malechka, John Dayron Rivera, Thomas A. Reh, Petr Baranov. Controlling donor and newborn neuron migration and maturation in the eye through microenvironment engineering. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2023; 120 (46) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2302089120

Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. (2023, November 17). Potential glaucoma treatment strategy to guide stem cells to the retina. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 20, 2023 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/11/231117181026.htm

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