AVS 49th International Symposium
    Biomaterials Thursday Sessions
       Session BI-ThA

Paper BI-ThA6
Spatially Patterned Tissue for Retinal Cell Transplantation

Thursday, November 7, 2002, 3:40 pm, Room C-201

Session: Cell Patterning to Engineer Function
Presenter: S.F. Bent, Stanford University
Authors: C. Lee, Stanford University
S.F. Bent, Stanford University
P. Huie, Stanford University
M.S. Blumenkranz, Stanford University
H.A. Fishman, Stanford University
Correspondent: Click to Email
Patterning of tissue for selective placement of cells is currently being investigated in a novel treatment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The transplantation of human retinal pigment or iris pigment epithelial cells (RPE or IPE) on a carrier substrate is a proposed method for rescuing the diseased retina in AMD. We have examined the use of autologous tissue as a carrier substrate for the cells because it offers several advantages over synthetic substrates. Human lens capsule is readily available through ocular surgery and can coexist in the subretinal space without inducing immune rejection. To control the adhesion and morphology of the RPE cells, we have spatially modified the tissue surfaces using microcontact printing techniques. We have micropatterned inhibitory molecules such as poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) on lens capsule and have examined RPE cells subsequently cultured on the surface. We show that micropatterning these molecules via microcontact printing and related flow methodologies confines RPE cells to cuboidal structures that closely mimic the natural RPE layer. The cell inhibition by PVA was found to be stable in culture over a period of weeks. The cells have been successfully patterned on human tissue to circular patches as large as 50 microns and as small as 15 microns in diameter, separated by only a few microns. However, we find that the pattern size strongly affects the probability of cell adhesion and subsequent cell spreading. Overall, micropatterning PVA appears to be a promising and reproducible method for confining cells to high density and to a single morphology. We will discuss the potential for these methods to create a precise and organized transplanted cell layer for the treatment of patients suffering from macular disease.