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Loss of retinal progenitor cells leads to an increase in the retinal stem cell population in vivo
Author(s) -
Coles Brenda L. K.,
Horsford D. Jonathan,
McInnes Roderick R.,
Kooy Derek
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2005.04537.x
Subject(s) - biology , progenitor cell , retina , stem cell , retinal , population , microbiology and biotechnology , neural stem cell , progenitor , muller glia , retinal pigment epithelium , neuroscience , medicine , botany , environmental health
Retinal stem cells [with the potential to produce either neural retinal progenitors or retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) progenitors] exist in the mammalian eye throughout life, and indeed the greatest absolute increase in the stem population occurs postnatally. The stem cells proliferate embryonically and thus may help to build the retina initially, but in postnatal mammals they clearly do not proliferate to regenerate the retina in response to injury. Using Chx10 orJ/orJ and Mitf mi/mi mice, with small eye phenotypes due to the reduction of the neural retinal progenitor population and the retinal pigmented epithelial progenitor population, respectively, we now report that the retinal stem cell population, when assayed from the ciliary margin, increases 3–8‐fold in both mutants. These findings suggest that the mammalian retinal stem cell population may be capable of responding to genetically induced signals from the progenitor populations.