Establishment of human embryonic stem cell line expressing EGFP reporter driven by human RAX promoter for evaluation of retinal progenitor cell potency.

In many visual disorders, the neural retinal cells are irreversibly damaged. Because of the low proliferation and repair capacity of these cells in humans, the visual acuity can be highly destroyed in patients, and this is while the current therapies can only partially reduce the extent of this disorder. Although retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are among one of the most considered sources for the treatment of retinal degenerative disorders, their limited proliferation rate is a significant challenge to provide a sufficient number of cells for transplantation therapy. Thus, this study aims to provide an efficient approach for monitoring RPCs to optimize in vitro maintenance conditions in the future. This was designed by introducing a stable line of hESCs expressing EGFP reporter driven by the human RAX promoter (pRAX-EGFP) as a key biomarker of RPCs. Considering that the pRAX-hESC line showed significant pluripotency capacity and differentiation potential towards RPCs, this cell line can provide a valuable biological tool for optimization and introduction of more suitable in vitro culture conditions in order to ensure the long-term maintenance of the derived RPCs. This cell line might also be considered a reliable cellular source for monitoring the differentiation process towards RPCs in preclinical studies in the future.