Identification of neural stem cells in neural retina, ciliary body and iris

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Embryonic retina is one of the possible cell sources that will repair degenerated retina such as retimtis pigmentosa. Retinal progenitor cells isolated from embryonic rats could be cultured and expanded in serum free medium with both epidermal growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor. We analyzed the properties of two different retinal progenitor cells in terms of culture periods. Retinal progenitor cells from embryonic retina could be expanded keeping immature cell properties and had the ability to migrate into degenerated adult retina from subretinal space after transplantation. They differentiated into neurons and glias, even into photoreceptor cells both in vitro and in vivo. However, they appeared to lose their tissue specificity after a long-term cultureWe also showed that iris and ciliary tissue in the adult rat eye, which are embryonically related to the neural retina, can generate cells expressing differentiated neuronal antigens. In addition, the Crx gene transfer induced the specific antigens for rod photoreceptors in the iris-derived cells, which was not seen in the adult hippocampus-derived neural stem cells. Our findings demonstrate a remarkable plasticity of adult iris tissue with potential clinical applications, as autologous iris tissue can be feasibly obtained with peripheral iridectomy