Patent ID: 7736896
Filing Date: 2010-06-15
Classification: A61K,A61P,C12N

Abstract:
1. A method for producing an enriched population of human retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells, the method comprising: (a) providing a multilayer population of human embryonic stem (hES) cells; (b) culturing said multilayer population of hES cells under conditions that do not maintain the undifferentiated state of said hES cells for a sufficient time to allow for the appearance of putative human RPE cells, wherein said putative human RPE cells comprise brown pigment dispersed within their cytoplasm; (c) selecting one or more of said putative human RPE cells from the culture of step (b) to obtain human RPE cells; and (d) culturing said human RPE cells obtained_in step (c) to form a cell monolayer containing cells that are Pax6− and bestrophin+ and exhibit a characteristic cobblestone, polygonal, epithelial-like appearance and comprise brown pigment dispersed within their cytoplasm, thereby producing an enriched population of human RPE cells.