Pittler 9321132 During development many different cell types are formed that must migrate to their proper locations in central nervous system (CNS) tissues such as brain and retina. It is during this time that neural networks are formed that remain for the life of the organism. A pathway in the rat retina has been identified that when perturbed leads to gross morphological disruption of the distribution of retinal cells with minimal degenerative changes. It is hypothesized that this pathway is involved in maintaining cell architecture and overall cell morphology of CNS tissue. It is also possible that this pathway functions to direct migration of cells to their proper location during development. This pathway in the retina is being characterized beginning with the identification of the proteins involved. The location of these proteins within the retina will be analyzed and compared with the location of the major structural elements that exist within cells. From these results the proteins that mediate the observed cell changes, their distribution within cells, and the major structural elements that are affected can be determined. This will contribute significantly to our understanding of structurefunction relationships in the CNS.
