Vitreoretinal explant

Retinal gene delivery via intravitreal injection is hampered by various physiological barriers present in the eye of which the vitreoretinal (VR) interface represents the most serious hurdle. We present a retinal explant model especially designed to study the role of this interface as a barrier for the penetration of vectors into the retina. In contrast to all existing explant models, the developed model is bovine-derived and more importantly, keeps the vitreous attached to the retina at all times to guarantee an intact VR interface. After ex vivo intravitreal injection into the living retinal explant, the route of fluorescent carriers across the VR interface (vitreous and inner limiting membrane) can be tracked.