Mouse retinal progenitor cell (RPC) cocultivation with retinal pigment epithelial cell culture affects features of RPC differentiation.

We provide evidence that coculturing of retinal progenitor cells (RPC) with retinal pigment epithelial cells significantly biases the standard in vitro RPC differentiation patterns. In particular, in cocultivation experiments RPCs lost the ability to differentiate spontaneously and displayed approximately 2.1-2.4-fold increase in immunoreactivity to the neural stem cell marker nestin and approximately 1.6-1.7-fold increase in rod photoreceptor cell rhodopsin marker immunoreactivity. The data suggest the influence of the intercellular interaction networks on RPC differentiation.