Agent for inducing receptor potential

1. An ophthalmologically acceptable artificial retinal material in the form of a film, sheet or net to meet the shape and size of the optic cup or affected parts, which can be installed in or transplanted into an eyeball surgically and which material can be substituted for a part or the whole of the function of the retinae of animals including humans, which is directed to ameliorate or cure visual disorders caused by retinal disorders and which consists essentially of a biocompatible large molecule as an ophthalmologically acceptable base to which an ophthalmologically acceptable organic dye compound is chemically bound or incorporated, said organic dye compound having an absorption maximum in the visible region and being capable of evoking a receptor potential in response to photostimulation in an optic nerve, said biocompatible large molecule having an adequate hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity, rigidity, flexibility, and electroconductivity and being a member selected from the group consisting of (a) natural large molecules selected from the group consisting of collagen, gelatin, cellulose, and hyaluronic acid; (b) cross-linked products and derivatives of dextran, cellulose, pullulan, and heparin; (c) synthetic large molecules selected from the group consisting of polymers and copolymers of silicon, polyacrylamide, polyacrylonitrile, polyacrylate, polyurea, polyurethane, polyester, polyethylene, polyethylene oxide, polyethylene glycol, polycarbonate, polycarbamate, poly(vinyl acetate), polyhydroxyalkylmethacrylate, poly(vinyl alcohol), poly(vinyl pyrrolidone), and polymethacrylate; and (d) a complex thereof.

2. The artificial material of claim 1 , wherein said organic dye compound is a polymethine organic dye compound.