Label-free microfluidic enrichment of photoreceptor cells.

Label-free microfluidic enrichment of photoreceptor cells. Exp Eye Res. 2020 Aug 06;:108166 Authors: Stone NE, Voigt AP, Cooke JA, Giacalone JC, Hanasoge S, Mullins RF, Tucker BA, Sulchek T Abstract Inherited retinal degenerative disorders such as retinitis pigmentosa and Usher syndrome are characterized by progressive death of photoreceptor cells. To restore vision to patients blinded by these diseases, a stem cell-based photoreceptor cell replacement strategy will likely be required. Although retinal stem cell differentiation protocols suitable for generating photoreceptor cells exist, they often yield a rather heterogenous mixture of cell types. To enrich the donor cell population for one or a few cell types, scientists have traditionally relied upon the use of antibody-based selection approaches. However, these strategies are quite labor intensive and require animal derived reagents and equipment that are not well suited to current good manufacturing practices (cGMP). The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a microfluidic cell sorting device capable of exploiting the physical and mechanical differences between retinal cell types to enrich specific donor cell populations such as RPE cells and photoreceptor cells. Using this device, we were able to separate a mixture of RPE and iPSC-derived photoreceptor precursor cell lines into two substantially enriched fractions. The enrichment factor of the RPE fraction was 2 and...
Source: Experimental Eye Research - Category: Opthalmology Authors: Tags: Exp Eye Res Source Type: research