Original scientific paper
Development of the Fetal Neural Retina in Vitro and in Ectopic Transplants in Vivo
Ana Katušić
Gordana Jurić-Lekić
Nataša Jovanov-Milošević
Maja Vlahović
Davor Ježek
Ljiljana Šerman
Nino Sinčić
Biljana Veljanovska
Floriana Bulić-Jakuš
Abstract
Investigation of the developmental potential of immature tissues is important for novel approaches to human regenerative
medicine. Development of the fetal neural retina has therefore been investigated in two experimental systems. Retinas
were microsurgically isolated from 20-days-old rat fetuses and cultivated in vitro for 12 days or transplanted in vivo
under the kidney capsule of adult males for as long as 6 months. Shedding of the photoreceptor outer segment which is a
process occurring at the terminal stage of photoreceptor differentiation was observed in culture by transmission electron
microscopy (TEM). In transplants, no photoreceptors were found although markers of terminal neural and glial differentiation
(e,g. synaptophysin, chromogranin and glial fibrilary acidic protein – GFAP) along with the molecules involved
in the process of differentiation (guidance molecule semaphorin IIIA and chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan) were
expressed. Semaphorin was differentially expressed being absent from older transplants. Proliferating cell nuclear antigen
and nestin (marker of undifferentiated neural cells) were still weakly expressed even in six-months-old transplants.
We could conclude that in both our experimental systems fetal neural retina proceeded to differentiate further on. However,
even in long-term ectopic transplants a small population of cells still retained the potential for proliferation and has
not yet reached the stage of terminal differentiation.
Keywords
rats; retina; fetal tissue transplantation; in vitro
Hrčak ID:
23728
URI
Publication date:
8.5.2008.
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