Retinal degeneration represents a huge burden of blinding disease, and currently there are no effective treatments that reverse the most common causes of neural retinal degeneration. Stem cell biology has the potential to significantly ease this burden, not only through the development of disease models of retinal degeneration but also in the manufacture of a replacement for the neural retinal tissue. This review summarizes the major advancements in the last decade in the field of neural retinal regeneration with an emphasis on the differentiation of embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells into cells with retinal and specifically photoreceptor characteristics.
© 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel.