Isolation, Culture, and Genetic Engineering of Mammalian Primary Pigment Epithelial Cells for Non-Viral Gene Therapy

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most frequent cause of blindness in patients >60 years, affecting ~30 million people worldwide. AMD is a multifactorial disease influenced by environmental and genetic factors, which lead to functional impairment of the retina due to retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell degeneration followed by photoreceptor degradation. An ideal treatment would include the transplantation of healthy RPE cells...