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Direct conversion of human fibroblasts into retinal pigment epithelium-like cells by defined factors.
Protein Cell. 2013 Jun 20. [Epub ahead of print] doi:
Zhang K, Liu GH, Yi F, Montserrat N, Hishida T, Rodriguez Esteban C, Izpisua Belmonte JC
Abstract:
.....By monitoring a human RPE specific Best1::GFP reporter, we report the conversion of human fibroblasts into RPE lineage using defined sets of transcription factors. We found that Best1::GFP positive cells formed colonies and exhibited morphological and molecular features of early stage RPE cells. Moreover, they were able to obtain pigmentation upon activation of Retinoic acid (RA) and Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathways. Our study not only established an ideal platform to investigate the transcriptional network regulating the RPE cell fate determination, but also provided an alternative strategy to generate functional RPE cells that complement the use of pluripotent stem cells for disease modeling, drug screening, and cell therapy of retinal degeneration.