title: Cell culture of retinal pigment epithelium: Special Issue.
abstract: This series of review articles highlights how in vitro models of RPE can be effectively used to understand essential functions of the RPE that are not only fundamental to epithelial biology, but also have direct relevance to the visual system. The issue contains reviews from experts in the field covering aspects of basic cell and epithelial biology, namely: the barrier properties of the RPE (Rizzolo, 2014), epithelial polarity (Lehmann et al., 2014), cytoskeleton (Bonilha, 2014), and lysosomes (Guha et al., 2014), as well as properties more unique to the RPE, e.g., vitamin A metabolism (Hu and Bok, 2014), bioenergetics (Adijanto and Philp, 2014), phagocytosis (Mazzoni et al., 2014), ion transport (Reichhart and Strauß, 2014), and melanin/lipofuscin (Boulton, 2014).
authors.affiliation: Veterans Affairs-Western New York Healthcare System, 3495 Bailey Avenue, Building 20, Room 207, NY 14215, USA(2); Ross Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, and Department of Biochemistry, and SUNY Eye Institute, University at Buffalo, USA. Electronic address: brucepfe@buffalo.edu.
authors.forename: Bruce A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Pfeffer
authors.affiliation: Thomas Jefferson University, Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA. Electronic address: Nancy.Philp@jefferson.edu.
authors.forename: Nancy J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Philp
mesh_terms: D002478:Cells, Cultured / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D055213:Retinal Pigment Epithelium / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology
keywords: cell culture; cell differentiation; in vitro models; ocular cell lines; retinal pigment epithelium; signature genes; translational ophthalmology