1. Investigating retinal explant models cultured in static and perfused systems to test the performance of exosomes secreted from retinal organoids.
- Author
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Yang T, Wang W, Xie L, Chen S, Ye X, Shen S, Chen H, Qi L, Cui Z, Xiong W, Guo Y, and Chen J
- Subjects
- Animals, Perfusion methods, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Tissue Culture Techniques methods, Cell Survival physiology, Cell Survival drug effects, Organoids metabolism, Retina cytology, Retina metabolism, Exosomes metabolism
- Abstract
Background: Ex vivo cultures of retinal explants are appropriate models for translational research. However, one of the difficult problems of retinal explants ex vivo culture is that their nutrient supply needs cannot be constantly met., New Method: This study evaluated the effect of perfused culture on the survival of retinal explants, addressing the challenge of insufficient nutrition in static culture. Furthermore, exosomes secreted from retinal organoids (RO-Exos) were stained with PKH26 to track their uptake in retinal explants to mimic the efficacy of exosomal drugs in vivo., Results: We found that the retinal explants cultured with perfusion exhibited significantly higher viability, increased NeuN
+ cells, and reduced apoptosis compared to the static culture group at Days Ex Vivo (DEV) 4, 7, and 14. The perfusion-cultured retinal explants exhibited reduced mRNA markers for gliosis and microglial activation, along with lower expression of GFAP and Iba1, as revealed by immunostaining. Additionally, RNA-sequencing analysis showed that perfusion culture mainly upregulated genes associated with visual perception and photoreceptor cell maintenance while downregulating the immune system process and immune response. RO-Exos promoted the uptake of PKH26-labelled exosomes and the growth of retinal explants in perfusion culture., Comparison With Existing Methods: Our perfusion culture system can provide a continuous supply of culture medium to achieve steady-state equilibrium in retinal explant culture. Compared to traditional static culture, it better preserves the vitality, provides better neuroprotection, and reduces glial activation., Conclusions: This study provides a promising ex vivo model for further studies on degenerative retinal diseases and drug screening., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests Jiansu Chen and Yonglong Guo reports financial support was provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China. Jiansu Chen reports a relationship with National Natural Science Foundation of China that includes: funding grants. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)- Published
- 2024
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