Patterning of the circumferential marginal zone of progenitors in the chicken retina

A circumferential marginal zone (CMZ) of retinal progenitors has been identified in most vertebrate classes, with the exception of mammals. Little is known about the formation of the CMZ during late stages of embryonic retinal histogenesis. Thus, the purpose of this study was to characterize the formation and patterning of the CMZ in the embryonic chicken retina. We identified progenitors by assaying for the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), N-cadherin and the nestin-related filament transitin, and newly generated cells by using BrdU-birthdating. We found that there is a gradual spatial restriction of progenitors into a discreet CMZ during late stages of embryonic development between E16 and hatching, at about E21. In addition, we found that retinal neurons remain immature for prolonged periods of time in far peripheral regions of the retina. Early markers of neuronal differentiation (such as HuC/D, calretinin and visinin) are expressed by neurons that are found directly adjacent to the CMZ. By contrast, genes (protein kinase C, calbindin, red/green opsin) that are expressed with a delay (7-10 days) after terminal mitosis in the central retina are not expressed until as many as 30 days after terminal mitosis in the far peripheral retina. We conclude that the neurons that are generated by late-stage CMZ progenitors differentiate much more slowly than neurons generated during early stages of retinal development. We propose that the microenvironment within the far peripheral retina at late stages of development permits the maintenance of a zone of progenitors and slows the differentiation of neurons.