Retinal organotypic culture - A candidate for research on retinas

Abstract

Reliable disease models are essential for investigations on mechanisms and therapies. The Retinal organotypic culture can maintain the architecture and cellular connections within the tissue in vitro. The system is a refined retinal experiment platform. It narrows the gap between cell line studies and in vivo models and is flexible enough for sophisticated experimental procedures. It greatly reduces the consumption of time or resources. Retinas of many species in various development stages have been used for diverse explorations based on their morphologies and physical characteristics. But the culture time course and the viability of the cultured tissue restrict the utility of the system. Recently, researchers have made increasing attempts to improve the culture conditions and applications of this systems for retina experiments in vitro. Accordingly, there is a great need for a comprehensive summary of these systems for researchers seeking proper in vitro models. In this review, we clarify several key points for the culture procedure and summarize its utility in retinal research.

Keywords: Disease models; Explants; In vitro; Organ culture; Retina; Retinal pigment epithelium.