Long-term Monitoring of Oxygen Consumption Rates in Highly Differentiated and Polarized Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cultures

Mitochondrial metabolism is critical for the normal function of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a monolayer of cells in the retina important for photoreceptor survival. RPE mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the developed world, and proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), a blinding complication of retinal detachments. RPE degenerative conditions have been well-modeled by RPE culture systems that are highly differentiated and polarized to mimic in vivo RPE. However, monitoring oxygen consumption rates (OCR), a proxy for mitochondrial function, has been difficult in such culture systems because the conditions that promote ideal RPE polarization and differentiation do not allow for easy OCR measurements.

Here, we introduce a novel system, Resipher, to monitor OCR for weeks at a time in well-differentiated RPE cultures while maintaining the RPE on optimal growth substrates and physiologic culture media in a standard cell culture incubator. This system calculates OCR by measuring the oxygen concentration gradient present in the media above cells. We discuss the advantages of this system over other methods for detecting OCR and how to set up the system for measuring OCR in RPE cultures. We cover key tips and tricks for using the system, caution about interpreting the data, and guidelines for troubleshooting unexpected results.

We also provide an online calculator for extrapolating the level of hypoxia, normoxia, or hyperoxia RPE cultures experience based on the oxygen gradient in the media above cells detected by the system. Finally, we review two applications of the system, measuring the metabolic state of RPE cells in a PVR model and understanding how the RPE metabolically adapts to hypoxia. We anticipate that the use of this system on highly polarized and differentiated RPE cultures will enhance our understanding of RPE mitochondrial metabolism both under physiologic and disease states.