neurosphere-free transdifferentiation of rat bone marrow stromal stem cells into retinal cells and retinal pigment epithelium

Introduction: neurosphere-free transdifferentiation of bone marrow stem cells into retinal pigmentepithelium (rpe) and retinal cells (rcs) in vitro could offer an exceptional opportunity to studycell replacement in degenerative eye diseases. thus, a simple and efficient protocol for retinal cellsproduction from transdifferentiation of rat bmscs in the neurosphere-free state is reported.methods: extracted bmscs from hooded pigment rats were exposed to a single-step protocol,including neurosphere-free, containing a cocktail medium that induced transdifferentiation intoretinal pigment epithelium (rpe) and retinal cells.results: the results showed morphological differentiation changes in vitro. also, theexpressed retinal pigment epithelium and retinal cell markers, such as retinal orthodenticlehomeobox 2 (23.45%), retinal pigment epithelium protein 65 (91.54%), cellular retinaldehydebindingprotein (91.21%), vascular endothelial growth factor (94.79%), rhodopsin (57.19%),glial fibrillary acidic protein (28.33%), and neurofilament 200 (24.55%).conclusion: overall, these findings showed that a protocol without using basic fibroblast growthfactor, epidermal growth factor, and b-27 supplements could generate rpe and retinal cells in