1,720,997 research outputs found

    Deconstructing Retinal Organoids: Single Cell RNA-Seq Reveals the Cellular Components of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Retina

    Full text link
    The rapid improvements in single cell sequencing technologies and analyses afford greater scope for dissecting organoid cultures composed of multiple cell types and create an opportunity to interrogate these models to understand tissue biology, cellular behavior and interactions. To this end, retinal organoids generated from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) were analyzed by single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-Seq) at three time points of differentiation. Combinatorial data from all time points revealed the presence of nine clusters, five of which corresponded to key retinal cell types: retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), cone and rod photoreceptors, and Müller glia. The remaining four clusters expressed genes typical of mitotic cells, extracellular matrix components and those involved in homeostasis. The cell clustering analysis revealed the decreasing presence of mitotic cells and RGCs, formation of a distinct RPE cluster, the emergence of cone and rod photoreceptors from photoreceptor precursors, and an increasing number of Müller glia cells over time. Pseudo-time analysis resembled the order of cell birth during retinal development, with the mitotic cluster commencing the trajectory and the large majority of Müller glia completing the time line. Together, these data demonstrate the feasibility and potential of scRNA-Seq to dissect the inherent complexity of retinal organoids and the orderly birth of key retinal cell types. Stem Cells 2019;37:593–598

    IGFBPs mediate IGF-1's functions in retinal lamination and photoreceptor development during pluripotent stem cell differentiation to retinal organoids

    Full text link
    Development of the retina is regulated by growth factors such as insulin-like growth factors 1 and 2 (IGF-1/2), which coordinate proliferation, differentiation, and maturation of the neuroepithelial precursors cells. In the circulation, IGF-1/2 are transported by the insulin growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs) family members. IGFBPs can impact positively and negatively on IGF-1, by making it available or sequestering IGF-1 to or from its receptor. In this study, we investigated the expression of IGFBPs and their role in the generation of human retinal organoids from human pluripotent stem cells, showing a dynamic expression pattern suggestive of different IGFBPs being used in a stage-specific manner to mediate IGF-1 functions. Our data show that IGF-1 addition to culture media facilitated the generation of retinal organoids displaying the typical laminated structure and photoreceptor maturation. The organoids cultured in the absence of IGF-1, lacked the typical laminated structure at the early stages of differentiation and contained significantly less photoreceptors and more retinal ganglion cells at the later stages of differentiation, confirming the positive effects of IGF-1 on retinal lamination and photoreceptor development. The organoids cultured with the IGFBP inhibitor (NBI-31772) and IGF-1 showed lack of retinal lamination at the early stages of differentiation, an increased propensity to generate horizontal cells at mid-stages of differentiation and reduced photoreceptor development at the later stages of differentiation. Together these data suggest that IGFBPs enable IGF-1's role in retinal lamination and photoreceptor development in a stage-specific manner
    corecore