Cultured retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells can phagocytize large foreign particles. Heterogeneous melanin aggregates from Sepia officinalis, a species of cuttlefish, were fed to cultured human RPE cells to produce cells laden with Sepia melanin. Blue light-induced apoptosis (BLIA) assays were performed by flow cytometry on parallel cultures consisting of RPE cells isolated from independent...

PURPOSE To determine the versatility of retroviral vector-mediated rat beta-glucuronidase cDNA expression in the normal retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) of eyes of various species and in RPE of eyes with three types of mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS types I, VI, and VII) and to evaluate the effect of multiple transductions and long-term stable expression in the RPE. METHODS A retroviral construct...

PURPOSE To generate and characterize a constitutively active, RPE-specific, cre-expressing transgenic mouse line. This line can be used to create RPE-specific knockouts by crossing with mice harboring loxP-flanked (floxed) genes. METHODS A transgene construct was assembled with the BEST1 promoter driving cre expression. Transgenic mice were generated on a C57BL/6 background. Cre expression wa...

PURPOSE To characterize trophic factor secretion of cultured adult and fetal retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells and to assess the impact on porcine retinal survival in vitro. METHODS Conditioned media (CM) were collected from cultured adult and fetal RPE cells and analyzed for trophic factor composition and concentration by multiplex ELISA. Trophic factor receptor occupancy was calculated...

PURPOSE To study the role of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) MALAT1 in transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1)-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. METHODS ARPE-19 cells were cultured and exposed to TGF-β1. The EMT of APRE-19 cells is confirmed by morphological change, as well as the increased expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin (αSMA)...

BACKGROUND The definite etiology of epiretinal membrane (ERM) is unknown. Clinically, ERM may cause metamorphopsia and decreased vision during the disease exacerbation. Several theories of pathogenesis emphasize a glial tissue origin. However, in some studies, surgically removed ERM specimens were found to contain retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. The actual mechanism by which RPE cells g...

PURPOSE Adhesion and migration of dislocated retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells are initial steps in the pathogenesis of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). The role of the endogenous lectin, galectin-1, in attachment, spreading, and migration of human RPE cells was investigated from a therapeutic perspective. METHODS Human RPE cells were treated with galectin-1 concentrations that ran...

This project used retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells to investigate the effects of up- and down-regulation of cathepsin D expression on the processing of cathepsin D and on the normal phagocytic and digestive function of these cells. RPE cells were transfected with a pHbetaApr-1-neo vector construct carrying the full-length sequence of the translated region of human cathepsin D in sense and...

Introduction The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) forms the outermost layer of the retina and consists of simple, cuboidal epithelial cells with unique plasma membrane polarity (Marmorstein, 2001). In the mammalian retina, each RPE cell underlies ~30 photoreceptor neurons all of which shed the aged, distal tip of their outer segment every morning stimulated by light and circadian rhythms (Young...

· AIM: To explore that if peroxynitrite induced the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS)via nuclear factor-kappa B(NF-κ B)pathway in retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells and the antagonism of cholecystokinin octapeptide-8 (Melatonin , CCK-8) . ·METHODS: RPE cells were obtained from eyes of C57BL/6 mouse and divided into control, peroxynitrite and CCK-8 groups. Control group wa...