@article{discovery1516779,
          volume = {7},
           month = {September},
            year = {2016},
           title = {A strategy to ensure safety of stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium cells},
         journal = {Stem Cell Research \& Therapy},
            note = {Copyright {\copyright} 2016 The Author(s). Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver
(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.},
       publisher = {BIOMED CENTRAL LTD},
        abstract = {Cell replacement and regenerative therapy using embryonic stem cell-derived material holds promise for the treatment of several pathologies. However, the safety of this approach is of prime importance given the teratogenic potential of residual stem cells, if present in the differentiated cell product. Using the example of embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, we present a novel strategy for ensuring the absence of stem cells in the RPE population. Based on an unbiased screening approach, we identify and validate the expression of CD59, a cell surface marker expressed on RPE but absent on stem cells. We further demonstrate that flow sorting on the basis of CD59 expression can effectively purify RPE and deplete stem cells, resulting in a population free from stem cell impurity. This purification helps to ensure removal of stem cells and hence increases the safety of cells that may be used for clinical transplantation. This strategy can potentially be applied to other pluripotent stem cell-derived material and help mitigate concerns of using such cells for therapy.},
          author = {Choudhary, P and Whiting, PJ},
             url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13287-016-0380-6},
            issn = {1757-6512},
        keywords = {Retinal pigment epithelium, Embryonic stem cells, Flow sorting, Age-related macular degeneration, Cell surface markers}
}