Reproducing Retinas

Eyes don’t always last a lifetime. Age-related blindness, retinal degeneration and other disorders can rob a person of the delight of sight too soon. In other cases, developmental disorders can deny a person vision from the get-go. To improve understanding of retinal development, disease and regeneration, researchers are devising ways to grow the tissue in culture. One such approach developed recently involves growing complex 3D retinal organoids – mimicking the tissue organisation and gene expression patterns of real retinas – from mouse or human embryonic stem cells. After one week in specialised culture the cells form eyefields, like the two pictured, and bear the expected range of important developmental factors (red, green and, when combined, yellow). And after a further two weeks the organoids are complete. The lab-grown tissue should not only provide insight into retina biology, but may even provide source material for cell replacement therapies of the future.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

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Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

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• Image by Manuela Völkner and Mike O. Karl
• German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) Dresden, Germany
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in Stem Cell Reports, April 2016