Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: Evaluation of preliminary data obtained by culturing retinal pigmentepithelial cells (RPE) harvested from patients with large neovascular subfoveal membranes and other pathology. Methods: Determining viability and culturing of RPE cells (in DMEM + 20% fetal calf serum) harvested during vitrectomy in two groups of patients. Group A: After neovascular membrane extraction an attempt was made to translocate autologous peripheral RPE to the macula in 12 patients (9 ARMD, 3 idiopathic); 5 % of cells of each patient were cultured for quality control. Group B: Because it was found that the surgical strategy in group A was not succesful and the number of cells from group A were unsufficient to further study ex-vivo RPE cells to improve this surgical approach, we also harvested RPE cells from 8 patients requiring peripheral retinectomy during vitrectomy of their complex retinal detachment (PVR, 7) and endophthalmitis (1). Results: In group A the number of cultured cells was 6.000-70.000. Viability of the cells was between 70-95 %. Although all patients had surviving cells for over two weeks in culture, growth in culture was observed in only one 29 year-old patient with an idiopathic neovascular membrane. In group B the number of cells was 20.000-40.000. Between 80 and 90 % of cells were viable. In five patients cells grew to confluence; morfology and cytokeratin testing showed the cells to be pure RPE cells. Neither age, nor the number of inoculated cells, but the patients diagnosis: i.e. ARMD appeared to be correlated with no cell proliferation in culture. Conclusion: These data suggest that RPE cells from patients with ARMD are unable to grow, which may correlate with the pathofysiology of these patients. Further studies to find the expressed molecular differences between RPE cells from patients with ARMD and other patients may reveal targets to improve treatment.
Keywords: 567 retinal pigment epithelium • 339 cell adhesions/cell junctions