ArticleInvestigative ophthalmology & visual science2023
Volumetric Reconstruction of a Human Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cell Reveals Specialized Membranes and Polarized Distribution of Organelles.
Article in Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Toward Organelle Motility as a Functional Biomarker of Retinal Pigment Epithelium Health.Translational vision science & technology · 2026Article
- Photobiomodulation in Age-Related Macular Degeneration: A Mitochondrial Bioenergetic Framework and Translational Perspective.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Impaired Rod-Mediated Vision is the Functional Hallmark of Ageing and Early and Intermediate Age-Related Macular Degeneration.Ophthalmic & physiological optics : the journal of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (Optometrists) · 2026Article
- Histologic Photoreceptor and Retinal Pigment Epithelium Degeneration in an Eye With Clinically Documented Geographic Atrophy of AMD.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- Visible Light Optical Coherence Tomography Reveals Aging at the Retinal Pigment Epithelium-Bruch's Membrane Interface.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The Science of Rod-Mediated Dark Adaptation, an Outcome Measure for Age-Related Macular Degeneration: The 2025 Proctor Medal Lecture.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- Near-Infrared Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy Reveals Loss of RPE Cell Body Polarity in Age-Related Macular Degeneration.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- AI driven 3D subcellular RPE map discovers cell state transitions in establishment of apical-basal polarity.NPJ artificial intelligence · 2026Article
- Hypertransmission and Vision in Aging and Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Longitudinal Data From ALSTAR2.American journal of ophthalmology · 2025Article
- Super-Resolution Near-Infrared Autofluorescence Microscopy Depicts Melanin Containing Organelles of the Retinal Pigment Epithelium in Human Donor Eyes.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Article
- Total Retinal Pigment Epithelium Thickness and Reflectivity, in Relation to Histology and Vision, at the Aging-AMD Transition: ALSTAR2 Baseline.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Article
- Subretinal aspects of the optoretinographic response.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- High-Resolution Imaging and Interpretation of Three-Dimensional RPE Sheet Structure.Biomolecules · 2025Article
- Complement C3 Activation in the Human Retinal Pigment Epithelium.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Article
- Histological Assessment of Foveal Mechanical Instability and Potential Implications for Macular Diseases.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Article
- Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Ophthalmoscopy, Vision, and Chorioretinal Asymmetries in Aging and Age-Related Macular Degeneration: ALSTAR2.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Article
- How crosstalk between mitochondria, lysosomes, and other organelles can prevent or promote dry age-related macular degeneration.Experimental eye research · 2025Review
- Unique ultrastructural organization of human rod photoreceptors.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Imaging melanin-associated organelles in the retinal pigment epithelium via visible light OCT redshift.Optics letters · 2025Article
- A comprehensive overview of focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) applications for the evaluation of outer retina.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Purpose: Despite the centrality of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in vision and retinopathy our picture of RPE morphology is incomplete. With a volumetric reconstruction of human RPE ultrastructure, we aim to characterize major membranous features including apical processes and their interactions with photoreceptor outer segments, basolateral infoldings, and the distribution of intracellular organelles. Methods: A parafoveal retinal sample was acquired from a 21-year-old male organ donor. With serial block-face scanning electron microscopy, a tissue volume from the inner-outer segment junction to basal RPE was captured. Surface membranes and complete internal ultrastructure of an individual RPE cell were achieved with a combination of manual and automated segmentation methods. Results: In one RPE cell, apical processes constitute 69% of the total cell surface area, through a dense network of over 3000 terminal branches. Single processes contact several photoreceptors. Basolateral infoldings facing the choriocapillaris resemble elongated filopodia and comprise 22% of the cell surface area. Membranous tubules and sacs of endoplasmic reticulum represent 20% of the cell body volume. A dense basal layer of mitochondria extends apically to partly overlap electron-dense pigment granules. Pores in the nuclear envelope form a distinct pattern of rows aligned with chromatin. Conclusions: Specialized membranes at the apical and basal side of the RPE cell body involved in intercellular uptake and transport represent over 90% of the total surface area. Together with the polarized distribution of organelles within the cell body, these findings are relevant for retinal clinical imaging, therapeutic approaches, and disease pathomechanisms.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.