Patent ID: 7794704

Claim:
A method for treating retinal degeneration in a subject in need thereof, comprising: (a) producing an enriched population of human retinal epithelium (RPE) cells by: (i) providing a multilayer population of human embryonic stem (hES) cells; (ii) culturing said multilayer population of hES cells under conditions that do not maintain the undifferentiated state of said hES cells for a sufficient time for the appearance of putative human RPE cells, wherein said putative human RPE cells comprise brown pigment dispersed within their cytoplasm; (iii) selecting one or more of said putative human RPE cells from the culture of step (ii) to obtain human RPE cells; and (iv) culturing said human RPE cells selected in step (iii) 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; and (b) administering to an eye of a subject in need thereof the human RPE cells produced in step (a), thereby treating retinal degeneration in said subject.