@article{9491cc9e87924717a0da4fa33de68e73,
title = "Restoration of vision after transplantation of photoreceptors",
abstract = "Cell transplantation is a potential strategy for treating blindness caused by the loss of photoreceptors. Although transplanted rod-precursor cells are able to migrate into the adult retina and differentiate to acquire the specialized morphological features of mature photoreceptor cells, the fundamental question remains whether transplantation of photoreceptor cells can actually improve vision. Here we provide evidence of functional rod-mediated vision after photoreceptor transplantation in adult Gnat1 -/- mice, which lack rod function and are a model of congenital stationary night blindness. We show that transplanted rod precursors form classic triad synaptic connections with second-order bipolar and horizontal cells in the recipient retina. The newly integrated photoreceptor cells are light-responsive with dim-flash kinetics similar to adult wild-type photoreceptors. By using intrinsic imaging under scotopic conditions we demonstrate that visual signals generated by transplanted rods are projected to higher visual areas, including V1. Moreover, these cells are capable of driving optokinetic head tracking and visually guided behaviour in the Gnat1 -/- mouse under scotopic conditions. Together, these results demonstrate the feasibility of photoreceptor transplantation as a therapeutic strategy for restoring vision after retinal degeneration.",
author = "Pearson, {R. A.} and Barber, {A. C.} and M. Rizzi and C. Hippert and T. Xue and West, {E. L.} and Y. Duran and Smith, {A. J.} and Chuang, {J. Z.} and Azam, {S. A.} and Luhmann, {U. F.O.} and A. Benucci and Sung, {C. H.} and Bainbridge, {J. W.} and M. Carandini and Yau, {K. W.} and Sowden, {J. C.} and Ali, {R. R.}",
note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Medical Research Council UK (G03000341), the Wellcome Trust (082217), the Royal Society (RG080398), the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society (GR566) and The Miller{\textquoteright}s Trust. R.A.P. is a Royal Society University Research Fellow. R.R.A is partly funded by the Department of Health{\textquoteright}s National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital and Alcon Research Institute. J.C.S. is supported by Great Ormond Street Hospital Children{\textquoteright}s Charity. T.X. and K.-W.Y. were supported by a US National Institutes of Health grant (EY06837) and the Ant{\'o}nio Champalimaud Vision Award (Portugal). C.H.S. was supported by grants EY11307, EY016805, Research to Prevent Blindness. M.C. holds the GlaxoSmithKline/Fight for Sight Chair in Visual Neuroscience and is supported by the European Research Council. We thank Y. Umino and the late R. Barlow for advice and training with optomotor recordings, A. Eddaoudi for FACS assistance, G. Holder for advice on ERG recordings, C. Hogg for light calibrations, L. Cao for technical suggestions on suction-pipette recordings, and the Department of Genetics, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, for discussions on the data.",
year = "2012",
month = may,
day = "3",
doi = "10.1038/nature10997",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "485",
pages = "99--103",
journal = "Nature",
issn = "0028-0836",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "7396",
}