RESUMO
Background and Objectives@#Eye diseases have a high socioeconomic impact on society and may be one of the fields in which most stem cell-related scientific accomplishments have been achieved recently. In this context, human Pluripotent Stem Cell (hPSC) technology arises as an important tool to produce and study human Embryonic Stem cell derived-Retinal Pigmented Epithelial Cells (hES-RPE) for several applications, such as cell therapy, disease modeling, and drug screening. The use of this technology in pre-clinical phases attends to the overall population desire for animal-free product development. Here, we aimed to compare hES-RPE cells with ARPE-19, one of the most commonly used retinal pigmented epithelial immortalized cell lines. @*Methods@#and Results: Functional, cellular and molecular data obtained suggest that hES-RPE cells more closely resembles native RPEs compared to ARPE-19. Furthermore, hES-RPE revealed an interesting robustness when cultured on human Bruch’s membrane explants and after exposure to Cyclosporine (CSA), Sirolimus (SRL), Tacrolimus (TAC), Leflunomide (LEF) and Teriflunomide (TER). On these conditions, hES-RPE cells were able to survive at higher drug concentrations, while ARPE-19 cell line was more susceptible to cell death. @*Conclusions@#Therefore, hES-RPEs seem to have the ability to incur a broader range of RPE functions than ARPE-19 and should be more thoroughly explored for drug screening.
RESUMO
Stem cells have been studied in several fields of Medicine, and their applications are not too far from the clinical practice. Retinal impairment by neuronal death has been considered incurable due to the limited regenerative capacity of the central nervous system. The capacity of stem cells to regenerate tissues, as well as their plasticity makes them a potential source for retinal repair. The stem cells are a great promise for the therapy of inherited retinal disorders and retinal-neuronal degenerative diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa and allied retinal dystrophies, which can result in blindness. Because of the accessibility, expansibility, and multipotentiality mesenchymal stem cells are expected to be useful for clinical applications, especially in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Mesenchymal stem cells are clonogenic, nonhematopoietic stem cells present in the bone marrow. Given the appropriate microenvironment, they could differentiate into cardiomyocytes or even into cells of nonmesodermal derivation including hepatocytes and neurons. So far, the results of a few studies are consistent with the belief that cell-based therapies using mesenchymal stem cells may be effective when it comes to retinal damaged tissue repair.
Células-tronco têm sido estudadas em várias áreas da Medicina e suas aplicações brevemente deverão estar incorporadas à prática clínica. O dano retiniano pela morte neuronal é considerado incurável devido a pobre capacidade regenerativa do sistema nervoso central. A capacidade das células-tronco em regenerar tecidos, assim como sua plasticidade, faz que estas sejam uma fonte potencial de células para a regeneração retiniana. Células-tronco são muito promissoras para o tratamento das distrofias retinianas, como a retinose pigmentar e outras doenças neurodegenerativas, que podem evoluir para cegueira. As células-tronco mesenquimais são o tipo mais provável de células-tronco a serem utilizadas na prática clínica devido a sua fácil acessibilidade e multipotencialidade de diferenciação em vários tecidos. As células-tronco mesenquimais são células clonogênicas, não-hematopoiéticas, localizadas na medula óssea. Desde que seja proporcionado um microambiente apropriado, estas células podem se diferenciar em cardiomiócitos e até mesmo em células de origem não-mesodérmica, como hepatócitos e neurônios. Até o presente momento, os resultados dos estudos iniciais são animadores em relação ao uso de células-tronco mesenquimais e uso eficaz destas no reparo de tecidos retinianos lesados.