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Use of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells to Define Initiating Molecular Mechanisms of Cataract for Anti-Cataract Drug Discovery

Cataract is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. Currently, restoration of vision in cataract patients requires surgical removal of the cataract. Due to the large and increasing number of cataract patients, the annual cost of surgical cataract treatment amounts to billions of dollars. Limited acc...

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Autores principales: Dewi, Chitra Umala, O’Connor, Michael D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6830331/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31627438
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells8101269
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author Dewi, Chitra Umala
O’Connor, Michael D.
author_facet Dewi, Chitra Umala
O’Connor, Michael D.
author_sort Dewi, Chitra Umala
collection PubMed
description Cataract is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. Currently, restoration of vision in cataract patients requires surgical removal of the cataract. Due to the large and increasing number of cataract patients, the annual cost of surgical cataract treatment amounts to billions of dollars. Limited access to functional human lens tissue during the early stages of cataract formation has hampered efforts to develop effective anti-cataract drugs. The ability of human pluripotent stem (PS) cells to make large numbers of normal or diseased human cell types raises the possibility that human PS cells may provide a new avenue for defining the molecular mechanisms responsible for different types of human cataract. Towards this end, methods have been established to differentiate human PS cells into both lens cells and transparent, light-focusing human micro-lenses. Sensitive and quantitative assays to measure light transmittance and focusing ability of human PS cell-derived micro-lenses have also been developed. This review will, therefore, examine how human PS cell-derived lens cells and micro-lenses might provide a new avenue for development of much-needed drugs to treat human cataract.
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spelling pubmed-68303312019-11-20 Use of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells to Define Initiating Molecular Mechanisms of Cataract for Anti-Cataract Drug Discovery Dewi, Chitra Umala O’Connor, Michael D. Cells Review Cataract is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. Currently, restoration of vision in cataract patients requires surgical removal of the cataract. Due to the large and increasing number of cataract patients, the annual cost of surgical cataract treatment amounts to billions of dollars. Limited access to functional human lens tissue during the early stages of cataract formation has hampered efforts to develop effective anti-cataract drugs. The ability of human pluripotent stem (PS) cells to make large numbers of normal or diseased human cell types raises the possibility that human PS cells may provide a new avenue for defining the molecular mechanisms responsible for different types of human cataract. Towards this end, methods have been established to differentiate human PS cells into both lens cells and transparent, light-focusing human micro-lenses. Sensitive and quantitative assays to measure light transmittance and focusing ability of human PS cell-derived micro-lenses have also been developed. This review will, therefore, examine how human PS cell-derived lens cells and micro-lenses might provide a new avenue for development of much-needed drugs to treat human cataract. MDPI 2019-10-17 /pmc/articles/PMC6830331/ /pubmed/31627438 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells8101269 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Dewi, Chitra Umala
O’Connor, Michael D.
Use of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells to Define Initiating Molecular Mechanisms of Cataract for Anti-Cataract Drug Discovery
title Use of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells to Define Initiating Molecular Mechanisms of Cataract for Anti-Cataract Drug Discovery
title_full Use of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells to Define Initiating Molecular Mechanisms of Cataract for Anti-Cataract Drug Discovery
title_fullStr Use of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells to Define Initiating Molecular Mechanisms of Cataract for Anti-Cataract Drug Discovery
title_full_unstemmed Use of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells to Define Initiating Molecular Mechanisms of Cataract for Anti-Cataract Drug Discovery
title_short Use of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells to Define Initiating Molecular Mechanisms of Cataract for Anti-Cataract Drug Discovery
title_sort use of human pluripotent stem cells to define initiating molecular mechanisms of cataract for anti-cataract drug discovery
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6830331/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31627438
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells8101269
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