[The urodelean retina as a model for studying the retinal regeneration potentials of other vertebrates]

The regeneration potencies of the retina of various vertebrate animals were analyzed on the basis of previously published data and the author's own data. It was shown that the known regeneration responses of retina to damage are universal for all animals studied. They are expressed in the growth of the cells in the eye periphery (growth zone of the eye) and their subsequent differentiation, the proliferation and transdifferentiation of the retinal pigment epithelium cells, the proliferation and differentiation of precursor cells of photoreceptors, the hypertrophy and proliferation of the Mullerian glial cells, and the reaction of the vascular cells and microglia. However, expression and, therefore, discovery of certain regeneration responses depends on the age of the animal (in most cases potencies for retina regeneration are expressed only during development), the species of the animal, and the nature of the trauma. As a result, only some of the potencies mentioned above are expressed in a species studied at a certain stage of development, or these potencies are not expressed at all. Urodelean amphibians are an exception, since they display all the regeneration responses of the retina that have been established so far on the other models.