Neuroretinal Toxicity

Organotypic neuroretina culture, from human and other mammals, has been demonstrably useful for testing safety of intraocular medical devices. Neuroretina explants are exposed to the medical device in order to test toxicity. After exposure time, the product is removed, and explants are washed. Neuroretina explants are kept in an incubator and cultivated for 72 hours as organotypic cultures.

At the end of the culture time, neuroretina explant samples are fixed. Samples are processed in an automatic tissue processor and vertical serial sections are obtained in a rotatory microtome and collected on glass slides. Sections of neuroretina are de-waxed, rehydrated, rinsed, and stained. Samples are evaluated with a light microscope equipped with a camera. Tissue / cellular modifications of the neuroretina explants were qualitatively graded according to the Guideline ISO 10993-5:2009 “ – Qualitative morphologic assessment of cytotoxicity of extracts”.