Photic maculopathy was produced in rhesus monkeys after exposure to the light of an indirect ophthalmoscope for one hour. This experimental model provided an opportunity for light and electron microscopic study of a relatively mild photic insult to the macula. During the first week, there was retinal edema with damage to the photoreceptor cells and to the retinal pigment epithelium. Beginning i...

OBJECTIVES To demonstrate that microcontact printing, a modern materials fabrication technique, can be used to engineer the surface of human tissue and to show that inhibitory molecules can be used to pattern the growth of retinal pigment epithelial cells or iris pigment epithelial cells on human lens capsule for transplantation. METHODS Photolithographic techniques were used to fabricate pho...

Adult human retinal pigment epithelium has been enzymatically isolated and established In tissue culture. Primary cultures survived three to six months. Occasionally, cell lines spontaneously evolved from primary cultures. Melanin granules decreased with the age of the culture, became less pigmented but retained some characterstics of melanin-producing cells. Lipofuscin granules are present, bu...

A study of respiration and glycolysis in vitro of retinal pigment epithelium and retina minus the pigment epithelial layer has indicated metabolic similarities and differences between the two tissues. Aerobic lactic acid production from glucose was one-half in pigment epithelium what it was in retina, and the Pasteur effect operated with approximately the same efficiency in either tissue. Pigme...

PURPOSE Drusen are deposits located between the retinal pigment epithelium and Bruch's membrane in age-related maculopathy. They are believed to be photoreceptor byproducts that are incompletely metabolized by the retinal pigment epithelium. This study therefore compares the lectin histochemistry of drusen, photoreceptors, retinal pigment epithelium, and Bruch's membrane. METHODS Semithin sec...