We have developed a cell culture procedure that can produce large quantities of confluent
monolayers of primary human fetal retinal pigment epithelium (hfRPE) cultures with
morphological, physiological and genetic characteristics of native human RPE. These hfRPE
cell cultures exhibit heavy pigmentation, and electron microscopy show extensive apical
membrane microvilli. The junctional complexes were identified with immunofluorescence
labeling of various tight junction proteins. Epithelial polarity and function of these easily …