Name: directed induction of retinal organoids from human pluripotent stem cells
Uploaded: 2021-04-21T13:30:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Directed Induction of Retinal Organoids from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells at JoVE.com

We thank members of 502 laboratory for their technical supports and helpful comments regarding the manuscript. This work was partly supported by the Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (Z200014) and National Key R&#38;D Program of China (2017YFA0105300).

This study was approved by the institutional Ethics Committee of Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University. H9 hESCs were obtained from the WiCell Research Institute and genetically engineered to tdTomato-tagged cell line.
1. Generation of human ROs
<ol>
	<li>Culture the hESCs under feeder-free conditions.
	<ol>
		<li>Coat one well of a 6-well plate with 1 mL of 0.1 mg/mL reagent A (Table of Materials) at 37 &#176;C for at least half an hour following the manufact...

<ol>
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S., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Cell+Types+of+the+Human+Retina+and+Its+Organoids+at+Single-Cell+Resolution.">Cell Types of the Human Retina and Its Organoids at Single-Cell Resolution.</a> Cell. 182 (6), 1623-1640 (2020).</li><li>Jin, Z. 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L., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Gene+Correction+Reverses+Ciliopathy+and+Photoreceptor+Loss+in+iPSC-Derived+Retinal+Organoids+from+Retinitis+Pigmentosa+Patients.">Gene Correction Reverses Ciliopathy and Photoreceptor Loss in iPSC-Derived Retinal Organoids from Retinitis Pigmentosa Patients.</a> Stem Cell Reports. 10 (4), 1267-1281 (2018).</li><li>Gao, M. L., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Patient-Specific+Retinal+Organoids+Recapitulate+Disease+Features+of+Late-Onset+Retinitis+Pigmentosa.">Patient-Specific Retinal Organoids Recapitulate Disease Features of Late-Onset Retinitis Pigmentosa.</a> Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology. 8, 128 (2020).</li><li>Zhang, C. J., Ma, Y., Jin, Z. 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Retinal organoid differentiation is a desirable method for the generation of ample functional retinal cells. The RO is a composite of different retinal cells, such as ganglion cells, bipolar cells, and photoreceptors, generated by pluripotent stems cells toward the neural retina4,5,8,9. Although confluent ROs could be harvested, it is time-consuming, which may require long culturing periods (up...

Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) are characterized by their self-renewal and ability to differentiate into all kinds of somatic cells. Thus, organoids derived from PSCs have become an important resource in regenerative medicine research. Retinal degeneration is characterized by the loss of photoreceptors (rods and cones) and retinal pigment epithelium. Retinal cell replacement could be an encouraging treatment for this disease. However, it is not feasible to obtain human retinas for disease research and therapy. Therefore, retinal organoids (ROs) derived from PSCs, which effectively and successfully recapitulate multi-layered native retinal cells, are beneficial for basic and translational research1,2,3. Our research focuses on RO differentiation to provide sufficient and quality cells for studying retinal degeneration4.
Methods for differentiating ROs are continuously emerging, with three-dimensional (3D) suspension differentiation pioneered by the Sasai laboratory in 20125. We introduced the CRX-tdTomato tag in the human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to specifically track the photoreceptor precursor cells and modified the method with the addition of COCO, a multifunctional antagonist of the Wnt, TGF-&#946;, and BMP pathways6. COCO has been shown to efficiently improve the differentiation efficiency of photoreceptor precursors and cones6,7.
Altogether, by modifying the classical differentiation method, we have developed an accessible protocol to harvest abundant photoreceptor precursors and cones from human ROs for analyzing the retinal disease associated with the photoreceptors through laboratory investigations and for further clinical application/transplantation.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>2-mercaptoethanol</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>21985-023</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>COCO</td>
			<td>R&#38;D Systems</td>
			<td>3047-CC-050</td>
			<td>DAN Domain family of BMP antagonists</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMEM/F-12</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>10565-042</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMSO</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>D2650</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DPBS</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>C141905005BT</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>EDTA</td>
			<td>Thermo</td>
			<td>15575020</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS), Qualified for Human Embryonic Stem Cells</td>
			<td>Biological Industry</td>
			<td>04-002-1A</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>GMEM</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>11710-035</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>KnockOut Serum Replacement-Multi-Species</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>A3181502</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>MEM Non-essential Amino Acid Solution (100X)</td>
			<td>sigma</td>
			<td>M7145</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Pen Strep</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>15140-122</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Primesurface 96 V-plate</td>
			<td>Sbio</td>
			<td>MS9096SZ</td>
			<td>Cell aggregation in 1.2.7</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Pyruvate</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>S8636</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Reagent A</td>
			<td>BD</td>
			<td>356231</td>
			<td>Matrigel in 1.1.1</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Reagent B</td>
			<td>StemCell</td>
			<td>5990</td>
			<td>mTeSR- E8 , PSCs basal medium in 1.1.2</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Reagent C</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>12563-011</td>
			<td>TrypLE Express in 1.2</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Reagent D</td>
			<td>Roche</td>
			<td>11284932001</td>
			<td>DNase I , in 1.2</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Retinoic acid</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>R2625-100MG</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SAG</td>
			<td>Enzo Life Science</td>
			<td>ALX-270-426-M001</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Supplement 1</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>17502-048</td>
			<td>N-2 Supplement (100X), Liquid, supplemet in medum III</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Taurine</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>T-8691-25G</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Trypsin-EDTA (0.25%), phenol red</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>25200056</td>
			<td>organoids dissociation in 2.1.3</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Wnt Antagonist I, IWR-1-endo - Calbiochem</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>681669</td>
			<td>Wnt inhibitor</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Y-27632 2HCl</td>
			<td>Selleck</td>
			<td>S1049</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

directed induction of retinal organoids from human pluripotent stem cells

Retinal cell transplantation is a promising therapeutic approach, which could restore the retinal architecture and stabilize or even improve the visual capabilities to the degenerated retina. Nevertheless, progress in cell replacement therapy presently faces the challenges of requiring an off-the-shelf source of high quality and standardized human retinas. Therefore, an easy and stable protocol is needed for the experiments. Here, we develop an optimized protocol, based on a self-organizing method with the use of exogenous molecules and reagent A as well as manual excision to generate the three-dimensional human retina organoids (RO). The human Pluripotent Stem Cells (PSCs)-derived RO expresses specific markers for photoreceptors. With the addition of COCO, a multifunctional antagonist, the differentiation efficiency of photoreceptor precursors and cones is significantly increased. The efficient use of this system, which has the benefits of cell lines and primary cells, and without the sourcing issues associated with the latter, could produce confluent retinal cells, especially photoreceptors. Thus, the differentiation of PSCs to RO provides an optimal and biorelevant platform for disease modelling, drug screening and cell transplantation.

The schematic illustration depicts the differentiation protocol to improve precursor cells with COCO (Figure 1). From PSC to ROs, numerous details could cause result variations. It is recommended to record every step and even the catalog number and lot number of every medium to track the entire procedure.
Herein, we provide bright field images for days 6, 12, 18, and 45 (Figure 2). On day 6, the organoids are usually around 600 &#181;...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Directed Induction of Retinal Organoids from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells at JoVE.com

Directed Induction of Retinal Organoids from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Using a self-organizing method, we develop a protocol with the addition of COCO that could significantly increase the generation of photoreceptors.

Retinal cell transplantation is a promising therapeutic approach, which could restore the retinal architecture and stabilize or even improve the visual ...

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