Figure 6.

The subretinal microenvironment induces accelerated maturation of non-migratory rods

(A) UMAP plots embedded the pseudotime maturation trajectories of rod photoreceptors in transplanted (n = 3 eyes) and cultured retinal organoids (n = 2 from the same batch as the transplanted organoids), comparing to human rod development. Cells were colored by cell type (top) and pseudotime (bottom).

(B) Ridgeline plot showed the transcriptional maturation of transplanted and cultured rod photoreceptors.

(C) Violin plots showed more RHO gene expression in transplanted than cultured retinal organoids.

(D) IHC analysis showed the percent of Rho⁺ cells in transplanted (n = 4 eyes) than cultured retinal organoids (n = 4 in one batch).

(E) Representative images showed Rho⁺ rod photoreceptors with (OS⁺, yellow arrow heads) or without (OS⁻) outer segments. Quantification showed the fraction of Rho⁺ cells with inner/outer segment (segment⁺) in transplanted (n = 4 eyes) than cultured retinal organoids (n = 4 in one batch).

Statistical data were presented as mean ± SD.