AUTHOR=Chintalapudi Sumana R. , Djenderedjian Levon , Stiemke Andrew B. , Steinle Jena J. , Jablonski Monica M. , Morales-Tirado Vanessa M. TITLE=Isolation and Molecular Profiling of Primary Mouse Retinal Ganglion Cells: Comparison of Phenotypes from Healthy and Glaucomatous Retinas JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience VOLUME=8 YEAR=2016 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2016.00093 DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2016.00093 ISSN=1663-4365 ABSTRACT=

Loss of functional retinal ganglion cells (RGC) is an element of retinal degeneration that is poorly understood. This is in part due to the lack of a reliable and validated protocol for the isolation of primary RGCs. Here we optimize a feasible, reproducible, standardized flow cytometry-based protocol for the isolation and enrichment of homogeneous RGC with the Thy1.2hiCD48negCD15negCD57neg surface phenotype. A three-step validation process was performed by: (1) genomic profiling of 25-genes associated with retinal cells; (2) intracellular labeling of homogeneous sorted cells for the intracellular RGC-markers SNCG, brain-specific homeobox/POU domain protein 3A (BRN3A), TUJ1, and RNA-binding protein with multiple splicing (RBPMS); and (3) by applying the methodology on RGC from a mouse model with elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) and optic nerve damage. Use of primary RGC cultures will allow for future careful assessment of important cell specific pathways in RGC to provide mechanistic insights into the declining of visual acuity in aged populations and those suffering from retinal neurodegenerative diseases.