Transcriptome analysis of human maturing macula

The macula is an essential region of the retina responsible for visual acuity. Abnormalities in development of the fovea at the center of the macula lead to severe diseases. To identify macula-specific differentially expressed genes in maturing stage of macular development, we compared the gene expression profiles of the macular and peripheral region of the pediatric retina. Retinas were collected from six cases of retinoblastoma and peters pnomaly and were divided into macular region and peripheral region. Using RNAs extracted from these six tissues, the expression profiles of macula and peripheral retina were compared by microarray analysis.