Development of embryonic rat eyes in organ culture

Previous studies on the differentiation of whole embryonic eyes in culture have been carried out mainly in the chick (Strangeways & Fell, 1926; Dorris, 1938; Harrison & Berry, 1959) and in one case in the rat (Tansley, 1933). Early postnatal intact eyes of rats and mice were cultured by Lucas & Trowell (1958), while more recently intact and trypsinized early eye rudiments (9 and 10 days) of mouse embryos have been grown in various modified organ culture systems (Muthukkaruppan, 1965). In all these experiments the media employed were either entirely biological or chemically defined media supplemented with biological media. Also, with the exception of the work done by Muthukkaruppan (1965), eye differentiation was well advanced at the start of the culture period. The present study was designed to test the feasibility of observing early embryonic rat eye development in organ culture with a totally defined medium. The ultimate aim was to devise a system in which the effects of individual components of the medium on embryonic eye development could be more precisely determined. This report describes such a system as well as the degree of eye differentiation achieved under these in vitro conditions.