Assessment of Safety and Functional Efficacy of Stem Cell-Based Therapeutic Approaches Using Retinal Degenerative Animal Models

Figure 6

Breeding of immunodeficient RCS rats. Initial mating was performed between male athymic nude rats (Hsd:RH-Foxn1mu) and female dystrophic RCS rats (Mat LaVail, UCSF) to generate F1 pups. The F1 rats were further crossed to generate F2 litters. Pups that are double homozygous (homozygous for RPE dysfunction gene and immunodeficiency gene) were identified based on phenotypic and genotypic expressions.