Retinal progenitor cells were isolated from explants of neonatal rat retinas and characterized by transmission electron microscopy and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and by their response to an isolated retinal pigment epithelial cell cell factor. The isolated progenitor cells demonstrated nuclei with abundant euchromatin typical of progenitor cells and showed the presence of nestin and opsin message. A protein ( approximately 67 kDa) isolated from conditioned media of cultured rat RPE cells promoted the survival of isolated retinal progenitor cells.