Evaluation of viability of retinal photoreceptor cells by using their endogenous electrical field.
The rod photoreceptor cells are electrical dipoles sustained by cell metabolic energy. Polarity of photoreceptor cells is directly connected to the so-called "dark current" which circulate along the living photoreceptors. Since only the living cells in a good functional state display electrical polarity, the orientation of photoreceptors in static electric field reflects their viability as long as it depends on the functionality of molecular mechanisms that maintain the dark current. Studying the rod cells' orientation in static electric field at different times after their isolation is thus an accurate way to evaluate the cell viability/degeneration. Retinal transplant experiments in animals and humans, which are presently in progress, require a quick and reliable viability test of cells/tissue to be transplanted. Checking the orientation pattern of rod photoreceptors in static electric field prior to transplantation is a candidate method for an accurate cell viability test.
Kovács
Eugenia
E
Biophysics Research Department, Carol Davila Medical University, P.O. Box 35-43, 76200 Bucharest, Romania. ekovacs@univermed-cdgm.ro
Pologea-Moraru
Roxana
R
Hosu
Basarab Gabriel
BG
D000818:Animals; D002470:Cell Survival; D004560:Electricity; D011895:Rana ridibunda; D017948:Retinal Rod Photoreceptor Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*