What is it about?
The Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) is a single cell-layer which is located underneath and intimately associated with the overlying neuroretina. Changes to RPE cells are linked with irreversible blinding diseases. We show a method to create a simple model of the outer retina in a dish so that scientists can easily study how RPE cells change with age and disease.
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Why is it important?
How disease-causing changes in RPE cells lead to blindness is still poorly understood. To study this, investigator use a variety of animal models, which are not always suitable for several reasons. The RPE cell model described in this article offers several advantages over animal models and can be used in parallel to gain valuable new insights into sight loss.
Perspectives
The work described in this article brings together our work alongside those of many others to highlight the advantages of using a simple cell model to gain fundamental insights into complex retinopathies. This is not always easy to achieve using whole animals. This cell model also offers significant benefits over animals in terms of saving time as well as costs. It is therefore useful for initial drug-discovery studies as well. I hope the article will prove useful to those new to this field and to my colleagues who already exploit this model effectively. The continuous development and refinements to this model offers the prospect of studying diseases of the outer retina with ever-increasing sophistication.
Arjuna Ratnayaka
University of Southampton
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A convenient protocol for establishing a human cell culture model of the outer retina., F1000Research, July 2018, Faculty of 1000, Ltd.,
DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.15409.1.
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