TY - JOUR
T1 - Transplanted neurons integrate into adult retinas and respond to light
AU - Venugopalan, Praseeda
AU - Wang, Yan
AU - Nguyen, Tu
AU - Huang, Abigail
AU - Muller, Kenneth J.
AU - Goldberg, Jeffrey L.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank T. Schmidt, M. Do and K.-W. Yau for their valuable input into the technique of retinal electrophysiology. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the BrightFocus Foundation and the National Eye Institute (P30-EY022589, UCSD), as well as an unrestricted grant from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc. All confocal images were generated at the UCSD Microscopy Core (supported by NIH P30 core grant NS047101).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Nature Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
PY - 2016/2/4
Y1 - 2016/2/4
N2 - Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) degenerate in diseases like glaucoma and are not replaced in adult mammals. Here we investigate whether transplanted RGCs can integrate into the mature retina. We have transplanted GFP-labelled RGCs into uninjured rat retinas in vivo by intravitreal injection. Transplanted RGCs acquire the general morphology of endogenous RGCs, with axons orienting towards the optic nerve head of the host retina and dendrites growing into the inner plexiform layer. Preliminary data show in some cases GFP+ axons extending within the host optic nerves and optic tract, reaching usual synaptic targets in the brain, including the lateral geniculate nucleus and superior colliculus. Electrophysiological recordings from transplanted RGCs demonstrate the cells' electrical excitability and light responses similar to host ON, ON-OFF and OFF RGCs, although less rapid and with greater adaptation. These data present a promising approach to develop cell replacement strategies in diseased retinas with degenerating RGCs.
AB - Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) degenerate in diseases like glaucoma and are not replaced in adult mammals. Here we investigate whether transplanted RGCs can integrate into the mature retina. We have transplanted GFP-labelled RGCs into uninjured rat retinas in vivo by intravitreal injection. Transplanted RGCs acquire the general morphology of endogenous RGCs, with axons orienting towards the optic nerve head of the host retina and dendrites growing into the inner plexiform layer. Preliminary data show in some cases GFP+ axons extending within the host optic nerves and optic tract, reaching usual synaptic targets in the brain, including the lateral geniculate nucleus and superior colliculus. Electrophysiological recordings from transplanted RGCs demonstrate the cells' electrical excitability and light responses similar to host ON, ON-OFF and OFF RGCs, although less rapid and with greater adaptation. These data present a promising approach to develop cell replacement strategies in diseased retinas with degenerating RGCs.
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U2 - 10.1038/ncomms10472
DO - 10.1038/ncomms10472
M3 - Article
C2 - 26843334
AN - SCOPUS:84957558344
VL - 7
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
SN - 2041-1723
M1 - 10472
ER -