Regeneration of Mammalian Retinal Pigment Epithelium

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the Regeneration of mammalian retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). By regeneration it mean the replacement of the damaged RPE sheet by a new one, involving cell proliferation and migration to produce new cells that differentiate into epithelium with the structural and functional characteristics of normal RPE. This is opposed to the recovery of surviving but functionally compromised RPE cells, for example, which may produce retinal edema. Observations in mammals most directly elucidate the RPE response to injury during human retinal disease and the biology of RPE and photoreceptors transplanted into diseased retinas. The success of these efforts depends on the reestablishment of normal interactions between RPE, photoreceptors, and choriocapillaris. For example, normal RPE cells may exert a trophic effect that helps “rescue” photoreceptors when they are transplanted into the retina of rats with dysfunctional RPE. The plasma membrane reorganizes, or remodels, during RPE regeneration, This is seen as changes in surface specializations, the binding of plasma membrane probes such as lectins and ruthenium red, and the redistribution of plasma membrane components as the cells mature, such as the gradual enrichment of the apical plasma membrane in Na+K+-ATPase.