title: Retinal pigment epithelium culture;a potential source of retinal stem cells.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell culture as a source for cell replacement therapy in ocular diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  Human cadaver globes were used to isolate RPE cells. Each globe was cut into several pieces of a few millimeters in size. After removing the sclera and choroid, remaining tissues were washed in phosphate buffer saline and RPE cells were isolated using dispase enzyme solution and cultured in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium: Nutrient Mixture F-12 supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Primary cultures of RPE cells were established and spheroid colonies related to progenitor/stem cells developed in a number of cultures. The colonies included purely pigmented or mixed pigmented and non-pigmented cells. After multiple cellular passages, several types of photoreceptors and neural-like cells were detected morphologically.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cellular plasticity in RPE cell cultures revealed promising results in terms of generation of stem/progenitor cells from human RPE cells. Whether the spheroids and neural-like retinal cells were directly derived from retinal stem cells or offspring of trans-differentiating or de-differentiating RPE cells remains to be answered.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Basic Sciences, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Akrami
authors.forename: Zahra-Soheila
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Soheili
authors.forename: Keynoush
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Khalooghi
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ahmadieh
authors.forename: Mojgan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rezaie-Kanavi
authors.forename: Shahram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Samiei
authors.forename: Malihe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Davari
authors.forename: Shima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghaderi
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sanie-Jahromi