Figure 5.

The subretinal microenvironment induces accelerated maturation of non-migratory cones

(A) Uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) plots embedded the pseudotime maturation trajectories of cone photoreceptors in transplanted (n = 3 eyes) and cultured retinal organoids (n = 2 form the same batch as the transplanted organoids), comparing to normal human cone development. Cells are colored by cell type (top) and pseudotime (bottom).

(B) Ridge plots showed the transcriptional maturation of transplanted and cultured cone photoreceptors.

(C) Violin plots showed significantly more OPN1LW, OPN1MW, and OPN1SW expression in transplanted than cultured retinal organoids.

(D) Histological analysis of L/M-opsin⁺ or S-opsin⁺ photoreceptors in transplanted (n = 4 eyes) and cultured retinal organoids (n = 4 in one batch).

(E) Representative L/M-opsin⁺ or S-opsin⁺ cone photoreceptors with (OS⁺, yellow arrow heads) or without (OS⁻) outer segments. Quantification showed the fraction of L/M-opsin⁺ or S-opsin⁺ cells with inner/outer segment (segment⁺) in transplanted (n = 4 eyes) and cultured retinal organoids (n = 4 in one batch).

(F) Single-cell patch-clamp recording of a transplanted human cone photoreceptor.

Statistical data were presented as mean ± SD.