有感光能力的视网膜组织已从人诱导多能干细胞被生成。这项工作为研究人视网膜发育和造成失明的疾病提供了一个系统。

    很多形式的失明都是由被称为“感光器”的细胞的功能失常或这些细胞的丧失造成的，这些细胞负责在视网膜中感应光。诱导多能干细胞(iPSC)在对这些疾病进行模拟方面或在作为潜在治疗药物方面都有很大潜力。以前的研究表明，是有可能在一个培养皿中从人iPSCs来生成视网膜组织、包括感光器的。

    Maria Valeria Canto-Soler及同事在这个方向上又迈出了一步：他们发现，人iPSCs能产生与发育中的人眼睛的解剖结构相似的视网膜组织，并且含有能以与活生物中的感光器细胞相似的方式对光做出反应的感光器细胞。

    虽然这项工作并没有直接测定这些细胞的治疗潜力，但它让我们与人iPSCs用于疾病模拟的预期使用更近了一步，同时也朝开发未来治疗方法的方向迈出了一步。

    

Many forms of blindness result from the dysfunction or loss of retinal photoreceptors. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold great potential for the modelling of these diseases or as potential therapeutic agents. However, to fulfill this promise, a remaining challenge is to induce human iPSC to recreate in vitro key structural and functional features of the native retina, in particular the presence of photoreceptors with outer-segment discs and light sensitivity. Here we report that hiPSC can, in a highly autonomous manner, recapitulate spatiotemporally each of the main steps of retinal development observed in vivo and form three-dimensional retinal cups that contain all major retinal cell types arranged in their proper layers. Moreover, the photoreceptors in our hiPSC-derived retinal tissue achieve advanced maturation, showing the beginning of outer-segment disc formation and photosensitivity. This success brings us one step closer to the anticipated use of hiPSC for disease modelling and open possibilities for future therapies.