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Induction of photoreceptor-specific phenotypes in adult mammalian iris tissue
M Haruta1, M Kosaka, Y Kanegae
1Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
Nature Neuroscience
|November 13, 2001
Abstract:
We show that iris tissue in the adult rat eye, which is embryonically related to the neural retina, can generate cells expressing differentiated neuronal antigens. In addition, the Crx gene transfer induced the specific antigens for rod photoreceptors in the iris-derived cells, which was not seen in the adult hippocampus-derived neural stem cells. Our findings demonstrate a remarkable plasticity of adult iris tissue with potential clinical applications, as autologous iris tissue can be feasibly obtained with peripheral iridectomy.