Heterogeneity of Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells from Adult Human Eye in Different Culturing Systems

We studied the behavior of retinal pigment epithelial cells from adult human eye derived from different donors in different culturing systems: on plastic, in collagen gel, and on decellularized neural retina substrate. The cells diverge into two subpopulations similar by their morphology and behavior: one subpopulation migrated to the surface of the dense substrate and the other formed spheroid structures consisting of aggregated cells. This fact confirms the data on genetically-predetermined phenotypic heterogeneity of retinal pigment epithelium cells that should be taken into account when using these cells in tissue engineering.