Abstract:Retinal degeneration diseases, including age related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and glaucoma optic atrophy etc, are characterized by the degeneration of retinal neural cells, retinal photoreceptor cells and retinal pigment epithelium cells, etc.Retinal degeneration diseases are the main cause of blindness. It has been generally assumed that the mature mammalian retinal cell is devoid of repair and regenerative capability, hence it's irreversible of retinal cell apoptosis. Currently, there is no efficient method to regenerate retinal organ. However, stem cell would hold great promise to restore visual function, so as to provide an alternative medical care with the biological property of differentiation and proliferation into target cells to replace degenerated retinal cells. This review focus on the sources of retinal stem cells and their applications on retinal degeneration diseases.
