A new immunodeficient retinal dystrophic rat model for transplantation studies using human-derived cells
Abstract
To create new immunodeficient Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rats by introducing the defective MerTK gene into athymic nude rats. Female homozygous RCS (RCS-p+/RCS-p+) and male nude rats (Hsd:RH-Foxn1mu, mutation in the foxn1 gene; no T cells) were crossed to produce heterozygous F1 progeny. Double homozygous F2 progeny obtained by crossing the F1 heterozygotes was identified phenotypically (hair loss) and genotypically (RCS-p+ gene determined by PCR). Retinal degenerative status was confirmed by optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging, electroretinography (ERG), optokinetic (OKN) testing, superior colliculus (SC) electrophysiology, and by histology. The effect of xenografts was assessed by transplantation of human embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium (hESC-RPE) and human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived RPE (iPS-RPE) into the eye. Morphological analysis was conducted based on hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and immunostaining. Age-matched pigmented athymic nude rats were used as control. Approximately 6% of the F2 pups (11/172) were homozygous for RCS-p+ gene and Foxn1mu gene. Homozygous males crossed with heterozygous females resulted in 50% homozygous progeny for experimentation. OCT imaging demonstrat...Continue Reading
References
Transplantation of human central nervous system stem cells - neuroprotection in retinal degeneration
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