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Long-term preservation of cortically dependent visual function in RCS rats by transplantation
P J Coffey1, S Girman, S M Wang
1Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TP, UK.
Nature Neuroscience
|December 26, 2001
Abstract:
Cell transplantation is one way of limiting the progress of retinal degeneration in animal models of blinding diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Here we transplanted a human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell line into the subretinal space of one such model, the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rat, and showed, using head tracking to moving stripes and pattern discrimination in conjunction with single-unit cortical physiology, that cortically mediated vision can be preserved with this treatment.