Retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) are multipotent progenitor that can give rise to all the 6 neurons of the retina and to the Muller glia. During retinogenesis, progenitor cells are gradually specified into lineage-restricted precursor cells, which then mature into the terminally differentiated neurons or Muller glia.
Late retinal progenitor cells appear at later stages of retinogenesis. The cells continue to asymmetrically divide. Finally, near the end of retinogenesis, both daughter cells tend to undergo terminal cell cycle exit, leading to full depletion of the entire pool of RPCs. The late RPCs differentiate into the late-born retinal cell types, which include the bipolar cells, certain subtypes of amacrine cells, as well as rod and Muller glia cells.