ISSN Print 2500–1094
ISSN Online 2542–1204
BIOMEDICAL JOURNAL OF PIROGOV UNIVERSITY (MOSCOW, RUSSIA)
Copyright: © 2025 by the authors. Licensee: Pirogov University.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY).
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY).
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Differentiation of iPSCs into corneal epithelial precursors in three-dimensional In vitro culture
About authors
1 Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Russia
2 Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow, Russia
Correspondence should be addressed: Nadezhda G. Gurskaya
Ostrovityanova, 1, str. 1, Moscow, 117997, Russia; ur.liam@ayaksrugn
About paper
Funding: the work was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, project No. 124021000001-09.
Acknowledgements: the authors thank M. A. Lagarkova, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, for fruitful discussion of the work and critical comments.
Author contribution: Zhigmitova EB — design and conduct of the experiment, Kosykh AV — material processing, micrography, preparation of the article, Gurskaya NG — concept, design of the work, primary manuscript editing.
Received: 2025-11-25
Accepted: 2025-12-12
Published online: 2025-12-27
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Diseases associated with limbal stem cell deficiency, such as chronic epithelial erosion and corneal scarring, require new therapeutic approaches rooted in regenerative medicine. This study aimed to develop a protocol for obtaining progenitor cells of the epithelium of the limb and cornea from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). We differentiated iPSCs toward eye organoids to obtain three-dimensional heterogeneous structures within three weeks. The resulting organoids contain corneal epithelial progenitor cells expressing keratin 3 and collagen 7, which confirms the possibility of generating functional epithelium in vitro. The protocol enables the generation of isogenic, patient-specific cell lines for treating limbal insufficiency and dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, including applications following preliminary genome editing of iPSCs.