Highlights
- There is no approved treatment for dry AMD or for the advanced GA of the retina.
- Tissue engineering is promising to repair damaged human retina, and restore its functions.
- Polymeric scaffolds allow cells to grow & proliferate to regenerate damaged retinal tissues.
- Integration of tissue engineering with drug delivery to regenerate retinal cells is yet to be realized.
Degenerative retinal diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), can lead to permanent sight loss. Although intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and steroid injections are effective for the management of early stages of wet and/or neovascular AMD (nAMD), no proven treatments currently exist for dry AMD or for the advanced geographic atrophy of the retina that follows. Tissue engineering (TE) has recently emerged as a promising alternative to repair retinal damaged and restore its functions. Here, we review recent advances in TE, with a particular emphasis on retinal regeneration. We provide an overview of retinal diseases, followed by a comprehensive review of TE techniques, cells, and polymers used in the fabrication of scaffolds for retinal cell regenerations, in particular the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE).