Therapeutic Application of Endothelial Colony-Forming Cells for Retinal Diseases

In this webinar, Drs. Susumu Sakimoto and Valentina Marchetti discuss their current research on generating human endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs) under xeno-free conditions to treat vascular abnormalities in the eye. Vascular abnormalities are a common component of eye diseases that often lead to vision loss. It is possible to use one cell type to rescue another cell type in the face of severe stress. Dr. Susumu will present his study on how human ECFCs injected into the vitreous cavity rescue vaso-obliteration and neurodegeneration in animal models of retinal disease. These results help us understand the mechanism of ECFC-based therapies for ischemic insults and retinal neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Valentina Marchetti will present a workflow to derive and expand ECFCs under xeno-free conditions using the EC-Cult™-XF ECFC Culture Kit.