Abstracts from the 2022 European Association for Vision and Eye Research Festival, 13-15 October 2022, Valencia.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

Albinism refers to a group of genetic disorders typically characterized by a loss/reduction of melanin in the hair, skin and eyes of affected patients. Apart from pigment changes, all albinism patients present with foveal hypoplasia and optic nerve misrouting, and have blurred vision. The molecular mechanisms that link this lack of pigment with neural retinal development are poorly understood, with foveal and optic tract development being difficult to model. To advance our knowledge, we developed a novel retinal organoid model of albinism, and characterized the development and outgrowth of retinal ganglion cells affected during albinism as a model for future studies.

METHODS:

Human oculocutaneous albinism 1 (OCA1) patient-derived stem cells were differentiated alongside controls into retinal organoids, as published previously1,2 . Early retinal ganglion cells develop in the first 4 weeks of differentiation, at which point whole organoids could be plated to allow for optic nerve-like outgrowth. Whole organoids were also fixed and analysed with immunohistochemistry (IHC) to visualize contralateral and ipsilateral ganglion cells present in the organoid.

RESULTS:

IHC analysis showed differences in the number of ipsilateral and contralateral retinal ganglion cells between the healthy control and albinism organoids, in line with in vivo observations. Further, optic nerve-like outgrowth could be achieved with both models, allowing for future research into optic nerve misrouting in albinism.

CONCLUSIONS:

We generated a novel retinal organoid model of oculocutaneous albinism, and characterized the retinal ganglion cell development and outgrowth. This will allow us in the future to study a different and sometimes overlooked aspect of albinism; optic nerve misrouting. References 1. Wagstaff, P. E., Ten Asbroek, A., Ten Brink, J. B., Jansonius, N. M. & Bergen, A. A. B. An alternative approach to produce versatile retinal organoids with accelerated ganglion cell development. Sci Rep 11, 1101, doi:10.1038/s41598-020-79651-x (2021). 2. Ohlemacher, S. K. et al. Stepwise Differentiation of Retinal Ganglion Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Enables Analysis of Glaucomatous Neurodegeneration. Stem Cells 34, 1553-1562, doi:10.1002/stem.2356 (2016).

• Authors: Ellie Wagstaff, Reinier Bakker, Eszter Emri, Anneloor Ten Asbroek, Arthur Bergen
• Journal: Acta ophthalmologica (Acta Ophthalmol) Vol. 100 Suppl 275 (Dec 2022) ISSN: 1755-3768 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 36756988 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: © 2022 The Authors Acta Ophthalmologica © 2022 Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica Foundation.