Abstract
Purpose:
α-Internexin is the first neuronal intermediate filament (IF) proteins expressed by postmitotic neurons of the developing nervous system. Its expression has been studied in the developing mammalian retina. Previous studies reported that α-internexin displayed transient expression in amacrine cells during development, and mainly expressed in optic nerve fiber, horizontal cell process of adult mice. Yet the expression of α-internexin in chicken retina has not been investigated. Therefore, we aim to study the temporal and spatial expression patterns of the chicken α-internexin (chkINA) and neurofilaments (NFs) in the developing chicken retina.
Methods:
The temporal expression of chkINA and NFs was examined by real-time quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot; whereas the spatial distribution patterns were demonstrated by immunohistochemistry.
Results:
In contract to NFs that revealed restricted expression patterns in the chicken retina, chkINA was transiently detected in several neuronal lineages of the developing retina. Expression of chkINA was detected in the early developmental stage and increased throughout the developing processes.
Conclusions:
Our data indicated that these neuronal IF proteins reveal dynamic patterns during retinal development. These results might point to the replacement of chkINA with NFs in the progressing of retinal maturation.
Keywords: 493 cytoskeleton •
688 retina •
554 immunohistochemistry