Patent ID: 8569056

Claim:
A method for producing rhodopsin-positive retinal nerve cells, the method comprising the steps of: isolating iris pigmented epithelial cells from an eyeball; selectively culturing the iris pigmented epithelial cells isolated from the eyeball by a floated coagulated mass culturing technique; and performing adherent culturing of the iris pigmented epithelial cells obtained in the selectively culturing step with a serum-free culture medium so as to induce differentiation of the iris pigmented epithelial cells into the rhodopsin-positive retinal nerve cells, the iris pigmented epithelial cells not being subjected to a gene transfer, the serum-free culture medium containing at least one of a fibroblast growth factor 2, a fibroblast growth factor 9, and a ciliary neurotrophic factor with a concentration in a range of 1 to 100 ng/mL, the iris pigmented epithelial cells in the serum-free culture medium when the adherent culturing starts having a cell density of 1×10 5 cells/cm 2 or less, the serum-free culture medium being a DMEM/F12 culture medium, a DMEM culture medium, or an EMEM culture medium.