Overview
- Researchers at Duke report in Nature Biomedical Engineering that they converted commercial human induced pluripotent stem cells into retinal endothelial cells that self-assemble into native-like retinal blood-vessel networks.
- The lab-grown cells reproduced barrier breakdown when exposed to low oxygen and high glucose in culture, a key feature of diabetic retinopathy used to model disease mechanisms and test drugs.
- When injected into mouse models with fragile retinal vessels the cells integrated into damaged tissue, rebuilt blood vessels and improved measures of retinal function, demonstrating proof of concept in animals.
- The paper was published online June 30, 2026, and the work was supported by agencies including the National Eye Institute and NASA; the team has a patent pending and is pursuing industry partnerships for scale-up.
- Authors stress the work is preclinical and that broader disease modeling, safety testing and translational studies are still required before any human treatments could be considered.