ABSTRACT
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The neural retina is a complex neural tissue and, like the rest of the central nervous system, the neurons and glia of the retina arise from stem cells and progenitor cells of the neural tube. The neural tube itself is derived from a region of ectodermal cells, which are induced to become neural tissue through interactions with subjacent, prospective mesodermal cells in a process known as neural induction (1). Following neural induction and neural tube formation, cells that line the diencephalic vesicle of the tube evaginate to form the optic vesicles. The optic vesicle undergoes further morphogenesis to form a two-layered optic cup. The cells of the optic cup (now called retinal progenitors or multipotent progenitors) proliferate extensively; some of their progeny withdraw from the mitotic cycle to develop as neurons, whereas others remain in the mitotic cell cycle and continue to produce additional cells.
