The purpose of this work is to understand how the retinal pigment epithelium degrades the photoreceptor cell outer segments. Cathepsin D, a proteinase, and phospholipases A1 and A2 are primarily responsible for degrading the outer segments. The projects and experimental approaches currently underway and planned include (1) characterization of the proteolysis of opsin, the vertebrate photopigment, by cathepsin D; (2) the role of membrane fluidity in allowing cathepsin D access to its principal substrate, opsin; (3) testing the levels of lysosomal hydrolases present in the retinal pigment epithelium and other phagocytic cells in a strain of rats (RCS) afflicted with an hereditary retinal degeneration known to be caused by failure of the retinal pigment epithelium to phagocytize the photoreceptor cells which have been shed.
| Ogino, Hajime; Ochi, Haruki; Uchiyama, Chihiro et al. (2012) Comparative genomics-based identification and analysis of cis-regulatory elements. Methods Mol Biol 917:245-63 |
| Keys, S; Zimmerman, W F (1994) Coenzyme A independent acylation of phosphatidylethanolamine in isolated bovine rod cell outer segments. Exp Eye Res 58:287-92 |
| Zimmerman, W F; Keys, S (1991) Effects of the antioxidants dithiothreitol and vitamin E on phospholipid metabolism in isolated rod outer segments. Exp Eye Res 52:607-12 |
| Zimmerman, W F; Keys, S (1989) Lysophospholipase and the metabolism of lysophosphatidylcholine in isolated bovine rod outer segments. Exp Eye Res 48:69-76 |
| Zimmerman, W F; Keys, S (1988) Acylation and deacylation of phospholipids in isolated bovine rod outer segments. Exp Eye Res 47:247-60 |
| Zimmerman, W F; Keys, S (1986) Acyl transferase and fatty acid coenzyme A synthetase activities within bovine rod outer segments. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 138:988-94 |
