Influence of retinal extracts and fibroblast growth factor on lentoidogenesis in the chick embryo retinal glial cell cultures

Abstract EN

Extract prepared from embryonic chick retina stimulates growth and particularly lentoidogenesis when added as a supplement to retinal glial (RG) cultures in vitro.

This effect is especially marked when using a medium (H) containing 5% horse serum, where growth factors are likely to be limiting.

The number of lentoids in such cultures increases with the concentration of extract.

Using extracts from earlier and later stages of retinal development, there is an age-dependent decline in the extent to which lentoidogenesis is stimulated.

It is suggested that these efforts are mediated by growth factors present in the retinal extract acting upon Muller glial cells or their precursors in the RG cultures.

In support of this suggestion, we show that purified fibroblast growth factor (but not epidermal growth factor) exerts similar effects on 8-crystalline in accumulation and number of lentoids.