Improved isolation method, culture and characterization of retinal pigment epithelial cells with high purity

Retinal pigment epithelial cells(RPE) form a monolayer on the outer portion of sensory retina and have important physiologic function that include solute transport, phagocytosis and digestion of membranes shed from photoreceptor outer segment and drug detoxication. Recently, transplantation of normal RPE has been proposed as a potential therapeutic modality in the surgical management of subretinal neovascularization in age related macular degeneration. In this study, to develop an improved isolation method, we compared results between physical method and chemical method and selected a modified cell isolation technique. High cell ttachment, rapid proliferation and high purity of retinal pigment eptihelial cells showed in chemical method II.