The rabbit retina: a suitable mammalian tissue for obtaining astroglia-free Müller cell cultures.

Monolayer cultures were prepared from two distinct parts of early postnatal rabbit retinae. Cell suspensions obtained from the developing medullary ray (MR) region contained neurons, Müller (glial) cells, and astrocytes, cells obtained from the remainder (peripheral) part of the retina contained neurons and Müller cells, but no astrocytes. Müller cells lack glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunolabeling in situ but some of them acquire faint GFAP labeling in both types of cultures. Strongly GFAP-labeled cells, most likely astrocytes, were seen in MR cultures only. We propose that the periphery of the rabbit retina is ideal for obtaining astroglia-free Müller cell cultures to study their functional properties in vitro.