Next Generation Sequencing (RNA-Seq) of stem cell-treated rats for quantitative analyses of retinal transcriptomes

Conclusions: Our study represents the first detailed analysis of MSCEPO-treated retinal transcriptomes, with biologic replicates, generated by RNA-seq technology. The optimized data analysis workflows reported here should provide a framework for further investigations in MSC enhancement methods. Our results show that NGS offers a comprehensive and more accurate quantitative and qualitative evaluation of mRNA content within the retina. We conclude that RNA-seq based retinal transcriptome characterization would expedite genetic network analyses and permit the dissection of complex biologic functions, especially in regards to MSC-mediated tissue repair and phototransduction.