[Effect of neonatal retinal pigment cell transplantation on aged retinas].

The authors performed neonatal healthy retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) transplantation into older eyes to test whether aging changes could be deterred or arrested in an appropriate model. Fischer-344 rats, a model for studying age-related photoreceptor cell death, were used as the recipient and 6- to 8-day-old Long Evans rats were used as the donor of neonatal RPE. Isolated RPE cells were transplanted into the subretinal space in 24, 3-month-old Fischer-344 rats. The presence of healthy neonatal RPE cells significantly maintained the thickness of each layer as compared to the findings in nongrafted and sham operated controls at 3 and 6 months after the transplantation. The transplanted RPE cells saved the reduction of cell population caused by aging from 40% to 17% in the outer nuclear layer and from 33% to 8% in the inner nuclear layer at 6 months after transplantation.