Axotomy-induced retinal ganglion cell death is attenuated by pluripotent cells isolated from the retinal ciliary body.

Abstract

Purpose : To investigate the therapeutic potential of pluripotent cells isolated from the ciliary body (CBCs) of adult retinas on the survival of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) after axonal injury.

Methods : CBCs isolated from C57/Bl6 adult mice were administered into the vitreous body of mice right after performing optic nerve crush. Two additional groups were used as controls: a group injected only with the vehicle (HBSS) and another group injected with CBCs into intact retinas (n=6-10/group). Axotomized and control retinas were analyzed at different time points after the lesion and the number of surviving RGCs was quantified.

Results : In control retinas we observed that vehicle or CBCs are not toxic for RGCs, nor they divide or form tumors. Compared to vehicle, treatment with CBCs increased the survival of axotomized RGCs at all time points, being the beneficial effect more apparent at longer time periods, reaching up to an 83% at 14 days and 70% at 30 days more survival than in vehicle-treated retinas.

Conclusions : The injection of CBCs in optic nerve axotomized mice delays RGCs death suggesting that these cells may have a neuroprotective effect after axonal injury.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.