We investigated the involvement of bone-marrow derived cells to experimental choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in mice, whose bone marrow was reconstituted by either unfractionated bone-marrow cells or Lin(-)c(-)Kit(+)Sca-1(+) enriched presumable hematopoietic stem cells from the green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgeneic mice. Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated the presence of GFP-positive cells in the CNV lesion after unfractionated bone-marrow transplantation, as well as Lin(-)c(-)Kit(+)Sca(-)1(+) cell transplantation. Some of the GFP-expressing cells also expressed CD-31 and PanEC antigen, markers of vascular endothelial cells. Our results suggest that bone-marrow derived cells may contribute endothelial cells in CNV. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Inc.