加齢黄斑変性に対する再生医療

Age related macular degeneration （AMD） is one of major cause of blindness in developed country. A clinical trial using induced Pluripotent Stem （iPS）-derived retinal pigment epithelial （RPE） sheet transplantation for exudative AMD is now going to start. The basic aim of the RPE transplantation therapy is completely different from that of the current standard anti-vascular endothelial growth factor （VEGF） therapy in a sense that the former is the radical treatment whereas the latter is basically a symptomatic treatment with certain limitations. In anti-VEGF therapy, subfoveal scar tissue or scarred choroidal neovascular membrane may induce gradual vision decrease without exudative changes. The purpose of the current clinical trial is to confirm the safety of the use of iPS-derived RPEs. Pre-clinical researches using iPS-derived photoreceptors
for retinal degeneration are also under way.