Autotransplantation Of The Iris Pigment Epithelial Cells As An Alternative To Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells In The Rabbit Eye

The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) plays an important role in the function of the neural retina, it serves as a vital support cell for the pho-toreceptor, forms part of the blood—retina barrier and so on. Thus, the malfunction of RPE will result in degenerative retinal diseases as RP and AMD. In 1983,Gouras first carried out RPE transplantation, the transplanted RPE could be survival and remain normal function . All those have brought us a exiting hope of curing degenerative retinal disease successfully.But like other organ transplantation, RPE heterografts or allografts must resolve problems of rejection and cell resource. In order to prevent rejection, autologous RPE grafts should be ideal. However, autologous...