Primary culture of human retinal glia.

Glial cells of the human retina participate in various pathologic processes characterized by cell migration, proliferation, and extracellular matrix production. To study these events in vitro, a procedure was developed to obtain primary cultures of human retinal glial cells. The cultures resulting from the processing of 130 globes contained cells with variable morphology including bipolar and multipolar or stellate cells. Most cells in the primary culture were labeled with antisera to the glial fibrillary acidic protein. The cultures were also examined with antibodies directed against factor VIII-related antigen and muscle-specific actin to determine the presence of endothelial cells and pericytes. A variable contamination of cells staining for the latter was found in these cultures (usually less than 10%). Together, these data indicated that the primary cultures arose principally from glial cells of the human retina but did not precisely identify the cell of origin.