Hidden 'recycling system' helps keep vision cells healthy

MedicalXpress | يول 29, 2026

For decades, scientists believed that photoreceptors in the retina relied primarily on neighboring support cells, known as the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), to remove waste. While the RPE is still responsible for clearing away the worn-out tips of photoreceptors each day, new findings from the University of Oklahoma reveal that photoreceptors also perform much of their own internal housekeeping. The study is published in Cell Death & Disease.