Intraretinal transplantation for rod-cell replacement in light-damaged retinas

Blindness from retinal disease is often the consequence of extensive damage to the photoreceptor cell population, while other cell types which form the neural retina are relatively spared. In this setting, transplantation of photoreceptor cells could offer hope for the restoration of some degree of visual function. We tested the feasibility of this approach by transplanting immature retinal cells into the eyes of adult rats affected by late stage phototoxic retinopathy, which are almost totally devoid of photoreceptor cells. Dissociated neuroretinal cells from newborn rats were injected into the hosts' retinas. These cells were labelled with the fluorescent tracer Fast-blue for identification within the host eye. Survival time ranged from 3 to 100 post-transplantation days. Fundus examination of light-irradiated eyes showed pallor caused by a considerable reduction of the retino-choroidal vascular bed after light irradiation. Histologically the hosts exhibited decimation of the elements forming the outer layers throughout the entire retina. As visualized by light and electron microscopic procedures, we report the differentiation of clusters of transplanted photoreceptor cells, and the integration of these cells within the adjacent areas of the host retina. Fluorescence microscopy showed these clusters to be formed by fluorescently labelled cells developing in intimate contact with the unlabelled host retina. Electron microscopically it was possible to determine that these photoreceptors had established synaptic contacts. These observations indicate that successful transplantation of immature retinal cells is feasible into adult eyes that have suffered extensive retino-choroidal damage. These findings also support the concept that retinal transplantation is a procedure which may open new avenues into the study of retinal repair.