Retinal Tissue Engineering: Regenerative and Drug Delivery Approaches

Abstract

In recent decades, the improvement of photoreceptor-cell transplantation has been used as an effective therapeutic approach to treat retinal degenerative diseases. In this review, the effect of different factors on the differentiation process and stem cells toward photoreceptors along with cell viability, morphology, migration, adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation efficiency is discussed. Scientists are researching to better recognize the reasons for retinal degeneration, as well as discovering novel therapeutic methods to restore lost vision. In this field, several procedures and treatments in the implantation of stem cells-derived retinal cells have been explored for clinical trials. However, the number of these clinical trials is too small to draw sound decisions about whether stem-cell therapies can offer a cure for retinal diseases. Nevertheless, future research directions have started for patients affected by retinal degeneration and promising findings have been obtained.

Keywords: Retinal tissue engineering; drug delivery; regeneration; retinal degenerative diseases; retinal diseases; retinal pigment epithelium.