scholarly journals Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cell Line with Fast Differentiation and Improved Barrier Properties

Pharmaceutics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hellinen ◽  
Pirskanen ◽  
Tengvall-Unadike ◽  
Urtti ◽  
Reinisalo

Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) acts as an outer blood–retinal barrier that limits the access of circulating xenobiotics to the eye. In addition, the RPE limits posterior elimination of intravitreally injected drugs to circulation. Thus, permeation in the RPE has a significant effect on ocular pharmacokinetics. The RPE is also a potentially important drug target in age-related macular degeneration. Therefore, the cell models of the RPE are important tools in ocular drug development, but poor availability and problems in reproducibility limit the use of primary RPE cell cultures. Furthermore, the best and widely used human cell line ARPE19 requires specialized culture conditions and a long time for cellular differentiation. In this paper, we describe a cell population arisen from the ARPE19 culture, with fast differentiation and improved barrier properties. This cell line, LEPI, forms clear microvilli and rapidly displays RPE-like cobblestone morphology after subculture in simple culture conditions. The LEPI cells show RPE-specific functions and expression of RPE65, ezrin, and BEST1 proteins. On filter, the LEPI cells develop tighter barrier than the ex vivo bovine RPE-choroid: permeability coefficients of beta-blockers (atenolol, nadolol, timolol, pindolol, metoprolol, betaxolol) ranged from 0.4 × 10−6 cm/sec to 2.3 × 10−6 cm/sec depending on the drug lipophilicity. This rapidly differentiating cell line will be an asset in ocular studies since it is easily maintained, it grows and differentiates quickly and does not require specialized culture conditions for differentiation. Thus, this cell line is suitable for both small scale assays and high throughput screening in drug discovery and development.

2020 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarriaun Streets ◽  
Priyanka Bhatt ◽  
Deepak Bhatia ◽  
Vijaykumar Sutariya

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) will be responsible for the vision impairment of more than five million late-aged adults in the next 30 years. Current treatment includes frequent intravitreal injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents. However, there are methods of drug delivery that can decrease the frequency of intravitreal injections by sustaining drug release. MPEG-PCL ((methoxypoly(ethylene glycol) poly(caprolactone)) has been reported as biocompatible and biodegradable. Polymeric micelles of MPEG-PCL can be useful in efficiently delivering anti-VEGF drugs such as sunitinib to the posterior segment of the eye. In this study, the novel micellar formulation exhibited an average dynamic light scattering (DLS) particle size of 134.2 ± 2.3 nm with a zeta potential of −0.159 ± 0.07 mV. TEM imaging further confirmed the nanoscopic size of the micelles. A sunitinib malate (SM)-MPEG-PCL formulation exhibited a sustained release profile for up to seven days with an overall release percentage of 95.56 ± 2.7%. In addition to their miniscule size, the SM-MPEG-PCL formulation showed minimal cytotoxicity onto the ARPE-19 human retinal pigment epithelial cell line, reporting a percent viability of more than 88% for all concentrations tested at time intervals of 24 h. The SM-MPEG-PCL micelles also exhibited exceptional performance during an anti-VEGF ELISA that decreased the overall VEGF protein expression in the cells across a 24–72 h period. Furthermore, it can be concluded that this type of polymeric vehicle is a promising solution to symptoms caused by AMD and improving the management of those suffering from AMD.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Wheway ◽  
Liliya Nazlamova ◽  
Dann Turner ◽  
Stephen Cross

AbstractThe retina contains several ciliated cell types, including the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and photoreceptor cells. The photoreceptor cilium is one of the most highly modified sensory cilia in the human body. The outer segment of the photoreceptor is a highly elaborate primary cilium, containing stacks or folds of membrane where the photopigment molecules are located. Perhaps unsurprisingly, defects in cilia often lead to retinal phenotypes, either as part of syndromic conditions involving other organs, or in isolation in the so-called retinal ciliopathies.The study of retinal ciliopathies has been limited by a lack of retinal cell lines. RPE1 retinal pigment epithelial cell line is commonly used in such studies, but the existence of a photoreceptor cell line has largely been neglected in the retinal ciliopathy field. 661W cone photoreceptor cells, derived from mouse, have been widely used as a model for studying macular degeneration, but not described as a model for studying retinal ciliopathies such as retinitis pigmentosa.Here, we characterise the 661W cell line as a model for studying retinal ciliopathies. We fully characterise the expression profile of these cells over many passages, using whole transcriptome RNA sequencing, and provide this data on Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) for the advantage of the scientific community. We show that these cells robustly express the majority of markers of cone cell origin, including short wave and medium wave opsin. Western blotting confirms expression of selected markers.Using immunostaining and confocal microscopy, alongside scanning electron microscopy, we show that these cells grow long primary cilia, reminiscent of photoreceptor outer segments, and localise many cilium proteins to the axoneme, membrane and transition zone. Immunostaining shows that opsins are localised to the base of this primary cilium. We show that siRNA knockdown of cilia genes Ift88 results in loss of cilia, and that this can be assayed by high-throughput screening. We present evidence that the 661W cell line is a useful cell model for studying retinal ciliopathies.


Antioxidants ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosell ◽  
Giera ◽  
Brabet ◽  
Shchepinov ◽  
Guichardant ◽  
...  

Oxidative stress plays a crucial role in developing and accelerating retinal diseases including age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6, n-3), the main lipid constituent of retinal epithelial cell membranes, is highly prone to radical and enzymatic oxidation leading to deleterious or beneficial metabolites for retinal tissue. To inhibit radical oxidation while preserving enzymatic metabolism, deuterium was incorporated at specific positions of DHA, resulting in D2-DHA when incorporated at position 6 and D4-DHA when incorporated at the 6,9 bis-allylic positions. Both derivatives were able to decrease DHAs’ toxicity and free radical processes involved in lipid peroxidation, in ARPE-19 cells (Adult Retinal Pigment Epithelial cell line), under pro-oxidant conditions. Our positive results encouraged us to prepare lipophenolic-deuterated-DHA conjugates as possible drug candidates for AMD treatment. These novel derivatives proved efficient in limiting lipid peroxidation in ARPE-19 cells. Finally, we evaluated the underlying mechanisms and the enzymatic conversion of both deuterated DHA. While radical abstraction was affected at the deuterium incorporation sites, enzymatic conversion by the lipoxygenase 15s-LOX was not impacted. Our results suggest that site-specifically deuterated DHA could be used in the development of DHA conjugates for treatment of oxidative stress driven diseases, or as biological tools to study the roles, activities and mechanisms of DHA metabolites.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Peeraporn Varinthra ◽  
Shun-Ping Huang ◽  
Supin Chompoopong ◽  
Zhi-Hong Wen ◽  
Ingrid Y. Liu

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a progressive eye disease that causes irreversible impairment of central vision, and effective treatment is not yet available. Extracellular accumulation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) in drusen that lie under the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) has been reported as one of the early signs of AMD and was found in more than 60% of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Extracellular deposition of Aβ can induce the expression of inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β, TNF-α, COX-2, and iNOS in RPE cells. Thus, finding a compound that can effectively reduce the inflammatory response may help the treatment of AMD. In this research, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effect of the coral-derived compound 4-(phenylsulfanyl) butan-2-one (4-PSB-2) on Aβ1-42 oligomer (oAβ1-42) added to the human adult retinal pigment epithelial cell line (ARPE-19). Our results demonstrated that 4-PSB-2 can decrease the elevated expressions of TNF-α, COX-2, and iNOS via NF-κB signaling in ARPE-19 cells treated with oAβ1-42 without causing any cytotoxicity or notable side effects. This study suggests that 4-PSB-2 is a promising drug candidate for attenuation of AMD.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sangeeta Satish ◽  
Hannah Philipose ◽  
Mariana Aparecida Brunini Rosales ◽  
Magali Saint-Geniez

Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) dysfunction due to accumulation of reactive oxygen species and oxidative damage is a key event in the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Here, we examine the therapeutic potential of ZLN005, a selective PGC-1α transcriptional regulator, in protecting RPE from cytotoxic oxidative damage. Gene expression analysis on ARPE-19 cells treated with ZLN005 shows robust upregulation of PGC-1α and its associated transcription factors, antioxidant enzymes, and mitochondrial genes. Energetic profiling shows that ZLN005 treatment enhances RPE mitochondrial function by increasing basal and maximal respiration rates, and spare respiratory capacity. In addition, ZLN005 robustly protects ARPE-19 cells from cell death caused by H2O2, ox-LDL, and NaIO3 without exhibiting any cytotoxicity under basal conditions. ZLN005 protection against H2O2-mediated cell death was lost in PGC-1α-silenced cells. Our data indicates that ZLN005 efficiently protects RPE cells from oxidative damage through selective induction of PGC-1α and its target antioxidant enzymes. ZLN005 may serve as a novel therapeutic agent for retinal diseases associated with RPE dystrophies.


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