Mouse Retinal Progenitor Cell (RPC) Cocultivation with Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cell Culture Affects Features of RPC Differentiation

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I. V. Kholodenko¹, A. A. Buzdin^1*, R. V. Kholodenko¹, J. A. Baibikova¹, V. F. Sorokin², V. N. Yarygin², and E. D. Sverdlov¹

¹Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Miklukho-Maklaya 16/10, 117997 Moscow, Russia; fax: (495) 330-6538; E-mail: anton@humgen.siobc.ras.ru

²Russian State Medical University, ul. Ostrovityanova 1, 117312 Moscow, Russia; fax: (495) 434-4787; E-mail: rgmu@rsmu.ru

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received January 14, 2006; Revision received April 3, 2006

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We provide evidence that coculturing of retinal progenitor cells (RPC) with retinal pigment epithelial cells significantly biases the standard in vitro RPC differentiation patterns. In particular, in cocultivation experiments RPCs lost the ability to differentiate spontaneously and displayed ~2.1-2.4-fold increase in immunoreactivity to the neural stem cell marker nestin and ~1.6-1.7-fold increase in rod photoreceptor cell rhodopsin marker immunoreactivity. The data suggest the influence of the intercellular interaction networks on RPC differentiation.

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KEY WORDS: retinal progenitor cell, retinal pigment epithelium, stem cell differentiation

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297906070091

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