Reaggregation of chick retinal and mixtures of retinal and pigment epithelial cells: The degree of laminar organization is dependent on age

Abstract

We report here a striking age dependency for tissue reconstruction capacity in rotating cultures of chick retinal cells, in particular in mixtures of retinal and pigment epithelial cells. The comparison of sections after acetylcholinesterase histochemistry delivered the following results. (1) In aggregates from retinal cells, sorting out is clearly observable, but only a minor age-dependent effect is detectable, e.g. the laminar order of aggregates derived from 6-day-old cells is increased compared to aggregates from other stages. (2) In aggregates from mixtures of retinal and pigment epithelial cells, the degree of laminar order is highest with cells from 5-day-old embryos and decreases significantly at older ages. The highest number of aggregates with the reconstruction of all main retinal layers was obtained by the reaggregation of retinal cells of embryonic day 5 (25%). (3) To achieve laminar order in aggregates, at all ages, the addition of pigment epithelial cells seems to be a prerequisite.