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Localization of α A-Crystallin in Rat Retinal Müller Glial Cells and Photoreceptors

2018; Oxford University Press; Volume: 24; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s1431927618015118

1435-8115

Astrid Zayas‐Santiago, David S. Ríos, Lidia Zueva, Mikhail Inyushin,

Retinal Diseases and Treatments

Abstract Transparent cells in the vertebrate optical tract, such as lens fiber cells and corneal epithelium cells, have specialized proteins that somehow permit only a low level of light scattering in their cytoplasm. It has been shown that both cell types contain (1) beaded intermediate filaments as well as (2) α -crystallin globulins. It is known that genetic and chemical alterations to these specialized proteins induce cytoplasmic opaqueness and visual complications. Crystallins were described previously in the retinal Müller cells of frogs. In the present work, using immunocytochemistry, fluorescence confocal imaging, and immuno-electron microscopy, we found that α A-crystallins are present in the cytoplasm of retinal Müller cells and in the photoreceptors of rats. Given that Müller glial cells were recently described as “living light guides” as were photoreceptors previously, we suggest that α A-crystallins, as in other highly transparent cells, allow Müller cells and photoreceptors to minimize intraretinal scattering during retinal light transmission.