Generation of a Retina Reporter hiPSC Line to Label Progenitor, Ganglion, and Photoreceptor Cell Types

PURPOSE: Early in mammalian eye development, VSX2, BRN3b, and RCVRN expression marks neural retinal progenitors (NRPs), retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), and photoreceptors (PRs), respectively. The ability to create retinal organoids from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) holds great potential for modeling both human retinal development and retinal disease. However, no methods allowing the simultaneous, real-time monitoring of multiple specific retinal cell types during development currently exist. METHODS: CRISPR/Cas9-mediated homology-directed repair (HDR) in hiPSCs facilitated the replacement of the VSX2 (Progenitor), BRN3b (Ganglion), and RCVRN (Photoreceptor) stop codons with sequences encoding a viral P2A peptide fused to Cerulean, green fluorescent protein, and mCherry reporter genes, respectively, to generate a triple transgenic reporter hiPSC line called PGP1. This was accomplished by co-electroporating HDR templates and sgRNA/Cas9 vectors into hiPSCs followed by antibiotic selection. Functional validation of the PGP1 hiPSC line included the ability to generate retinal organoids, with all major retinal cell types, displaying the expression of the three fluorescent reporters consistent with the onset of target gene expression. Disaggregated organoids were also analyzed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and fluorescent populations were tested for the expression of the targeted gene. RESULTS: Retinal organoids formed from the PGP1 line expressed appropriate fluorescent proteins consistent with the differentiation of NRPs, RGCs, and PRs. Organoids produced from the PGP1 line expressed transcripts consistent with the development of all major retinal cell types. CONCLUSIONS AND TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: The PGP1 line offers a powerful new tool to study retinal development, retinal reprogramming, and therapeutic drug screening.