| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,680,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,080,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥260,000 (Direct Cost: ¥200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥60,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥2,470,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥570,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The main cells that make up the retina, are photoreceptor cells, retinal ganglion cells, and bipolar cells. The photoreceptor cells are classified into rod-photoreceptor cells for sensing light and dark, and the cone photoreceptors responsible for color vision.In the course of embryonal development and somatic regeneration occur, differentiation from retinal progenitor cells into bipolar cells, retinal ganglion cells, cone photoreceptors and rod-photoreceptor cells has been extensively studied. Nevertheless, molecules involved in the differentiation processes have not been fully clarified.We have introduced a gene pax6 which is one of the most important transcription factors involved in the eye development into mouse iPS cells and mouse ES cells. After limitingdilution culture of the pax6 transfected cells, we have established several retinal neural progenitor cell lines expressing simultaneously nestin, musashi1, six3, and chx10, a transcription factor which is importantly invod in differentiation of retinal progenitor cells. The retinal progenitor cells we have established from iPS cells are 50% positive for cell surface CD73, a retinal progenitor cell marker, and express a moderate amount of rhodopsin protein upon unstimulated condition. The cells differentiate into cells expressing green-opsin, blue-opsin, and red-opsin in response to various chemokines and growth factors.In contrast, cell lines established from ES cells with the same procedure differentiate into retinal ganglion cells predominantly. Collectively, we found that differentiation of photoreceptor precursor cells into cone photoreceptors and rod-photoreceptor cells areregulated by respective chemokines and growth factors.
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