No abstract

Perception of the Purkinje vessel shadows does not distinguish between good and poor retinal acuity, whereas nonperception of the vessel shadows strongly suggests poor acuity. Perception of the foveal granular pattern, on the other hand, provides a positive indication of good retinal acuity and will likely prove to be predictive of good vision after removal of significant media opacity.

1. In recent years, a number of histochemical and immunocytochemical studies have suggested that proteoglycans, particularly those in the interphotoreceptor matrix, exhibit altered distributions in several murine models for retinal degenerations. We are using a cell culture system to characterize the proteoglycans synthesized by neurons and photoreceptors derived from mouse retina, with the long-term goal of analyzing their role in retinal degenerations. 2. In this study we describe initial studies using cells derived from the retinas of normal mice. Cultures of retinal neurons and photoreceptors, which were free of glial, epithelia, or endothelial cells, were labeled with 3H-glucosamine and 35SO4. Proteoglycans isolated from the medium and cell layer were analyzed on the basis of charge, relative hydrodynamic size, and glycosaminoglycan content. 3. The studies indicate that the cultures actively synthesize proteoglycans. The medium contained predominantly chondroitin sulfate/dermatan sulfate, while the cell layer had a higher proportion of heparan sulfate, indicating a differential distribution between the two compartments.