{"id":140634,"date":"2022-06-15T15:37:35","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T20:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/differentiation-protocol-could-improve-stem-cell-based-therapies-for-macular-degeneration"},"modified":"2022-06-15T15:37:35","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T20:37:35","slug":"differentiation-protocol-could-improve-stem-cell-based-therapies-for-macular-degeneration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/differentiation-protocol-could-improve-stem-cell-based-therapies-for-macular-degeneration","title":{"rendered":"Differentiation Protocol Could Improve Stem Cell-Based Therapies for Macular Degeneration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/differentiation-protocol-could-improve-stem-cell-based-therapies-for-macular-degeneration.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The macula is part of the eye\u2019s retina, which is the light-sensitive tissue mostly composed of the eye\u2019s visual cells: cone and rod photoreceptor cells. The retina also contains a layer called the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), which has several important functions, including light absorption, cleaning up cellular waste, and keeping the other cells of the eye healthy.<\/p>\n<p>The cells of the RPE also nourish and maintain the eye\u2019s photoreceptor cells, which is why one of the most promising treatment strategies for age-related macular degeneration is to replace aging, degenerating RPE cells with new ones grown from human embryonic stem cells.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists have proposed several methods for converting stem cells into RPE, but there is still a gap in our knowledge of how cells respond to these stimuli over time. For example, some protocols take a few months while others can take up to a year. And yet, scientists are not clear as to what exactly happens over that period of time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The macula is part of the eye\u2019s retina, which is the light-sensitive tissue mostly composed of the eye\u2019s visual cells: cone and rod photoreceptor cells. The retina also contains a layer called the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), which has several important functions, including light absorption, cleaning up cellular waste, and keeping the other cells of [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-life-extension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}