Primary Culture of Porcine Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells

Summary

Here, an easy-to-follow method to culture primary porcine retinal pigment epithelial cells in vitro is presented.

Abstract

The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is a monolayer of polarized pigmented epithelial cells, located between the choroid and neuroretina in the retina. Multiple functions, including phagocytosis, nutrient/metabolite transportation, vitamin A metabolism, etc., are conducted by the RPE on a daily basis. RPE cells are terminally differentiated epithelial cells with little or no regenerative capacity. Loss of RPE cells results in multiple eye diseases leading to visual impairment, such as age-related macular degeneration. Therefore, the establishment of an in vitro culture model of primary RPE cells, which more closely resembles the RPE in vivo than cell lines, is critical for the characteristic and mechanistic studies of RPE cells. Considering the fact that the source of human eyeballs is limited, we create a protocol to culture primary porcine RPE cells. By using this protocol, RPE cells can be easily dissociated from adult porcine eyeballs. Subsequently, these dissociated cells attach to culture dishes/inserts, proliferate to form a confluent monolayer, and quickly re-establish key features of epithelial tissue in vivo within 2 wks. By qRT-PCR, it is demonstrated that primary porcine RPE cells express multiple signature genes at comparable levels with native RPE tissue, while the expressions of most of these genes are lost/highly reduced in human RPE-like cells, ARPE-19. Moreover, the immunofluorescence staining shows the distribution of tight junction, tissue polarity, and cytoskeleton proteins, as well as the presence of RPE65, an isomerase critical for vitamin A metabolism, in cultured primary cells. Altogether, we have developed an easy-to-follow approach to culture primary porcine RPE cells with high purity and native RPE features, which could serve as a good model to understand RPE physiology, study cell toxicities, and facilitate drug screenings.

Introduction

The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is located between photoreceptors and choriocapillaris in the outer layer of the retina¹ with multiple functions, including forming the blood-retinal barrier, transporting and exchanging nutrients and retinal metabolites, recycling vitamin A to maintain a normal visual cycle, and phagocytosis and clearance of shed photoreceptor outer segments (POSs)^2,3. Since POSs require constant self-renewal to generate vision, the RPE cells need to continuously engulf detached POSs to maintain retinal homeostasis⁴. Therefore, RPE dysfunctio....

Protocol

The use of experimental animals complied with the regulations of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) and was approved by the Ethics Committee of Experimental Animal Management of Xiamen University.

1. Preparation of experimental surgical devices, tissue digestion enzyme, and cell culture buffer

1. Prepare the experimental surgical devices, by cleaning and autoclaving two pairs of ophthalmic surgical scissors and forceps the day before the e.......

Discussion

Here, a detailed and optimized protocol for the isolation, culture, and characterization of RPE cells from porcine eyeballs, which generates a good model for in vitro characterization of RPE cells and RPE-related disorder studies has been described. Methods for the isolation of the RPE from human, mouse, and rat eyes have been described previously^23,24,25. However, it is difficult to obtain human eyeballs in some labora.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
ARPE-19 cells	CCTCC	GDC0323
Bovine serum albumin	Yeasen	36101ES60
Confocal microscopy	Zeiss	LSM 880 with Airyscan
ChemiDoc Touch	Bio-Rad	1708370
Cell scraper	Sangon	F619301
10 cm culture dish	NEST	121621EH01
12-well culture plate	NEST	29821075P
DMEM F12 Medium	Gibco	C11330500BT
DMEM basic Medium	Gibco	C11995500BT
EVOM2	World Precision Instruments	EVOM2	For TER measurement
Fetal bovine serum	ExCell Bio	FSP500
Goat anti-Rabbit IgG (H+L) Highly Cross-Adsorbed Secondary Antibody, Alexa Fluor 488	ThermoFisher Scientific	A-11034
Goat anti-Rabbit IgG (H+L) Cross-Adsorbed Secondary Antibody, Alexa Fluor 594	ThermoFisher Scientific	A-11012
Goat anti Mouse IgG (H/L):HRP	Bio-Rad	0300-0108P
Goat anti Rabbit IgG (H/L):HRP	Bio-Rad	5196-2504
hydrocortisone	MCE	HY-N0583/CS-2226
Hoechst 33342 solution (20 mM)	ThermoFisher Scientific	62249
LightCycler 96 Instrument	Roche	5815916001
Liothyronine	MCE	HY-A0070A/CS-4141
laminin	Sigma-Aldrich	L2020-1MG
MEM(1X)+GlutaMAX Medium	Gibco	10566-016
MEM NEAA(100X)	Gibco	11140-050
Millex-GP syringe filter unit	Millipore	SLGPR33RB
N1	Sigma-Aldrich	SLCF4683
NcmECL Ultra	New Cell&Molecular Biotech	P10300
Non-fat Powdered Milk	Solarbio	D8340
Nicotinamide	SparkJade	SJ-MV0061
Na+-K+ ATPase antibody	Abcam	ab76020	Recognize both human and porcine proteins
PAGE Gel Fast Preparation Kit(10%)	Epizyme	PG112
primary Human RPE cells	-	-	Generous gift from Shoubi Wang lab
Pierce BCA Protein Assay Kit	ThermoFisher Scientific	23225
Prism	GraphPad by Dotmatics	version 8.0
Protease Inhibitor Cocktails	APExBIO	K1024
PRE65 antibody	Proteintech	17939-1-AP	Recognize both human and porcine proteins
PEDF antibody	Santa Cruz Biotechnology	sc-390172	Recognize both human and porcine proteins
100 x penicillin/streptomycin	Biological Industries	03-031-1BCS
Phosphate buffered saline (PBS)	RARBIO	RA-9005
ReverTra Ace qPCR RT Master Mix	Toyobo	FSQ-201
RIPA buffer	ThermoFisher Scientific	89900
15 mL sterile centrifuge tubes	NEST	601052
50 mL sterile centrifuge tubes	NEST	602052
0.25% Trypsin-EDTA	Gibco	25200-056
Taurine	Damas-beta	107-35-7
Trizol	Thermo-Fisher	15596026	RNA extraction solution
TB Green Fast qPCR Mix	Takara	RR430A
12-well transwell inserts	Labselect	14212
VEGF antibody	Proteintech	19003-1-AP	Recognize both human and porcine proteins
VEGF ELISA kit	Novusbio	VAL106
ZO-1 antibody	ABclonal	A0659	Recognize both human and porcine proteins