Abstract
Purpose: :
Patients with mesangiocapillary or membrano-proliferative glomerulonephritis type II (type II MCGN or type II MPGN) may develop numerous small tightly packed drusen termed basal laminar drusen (BLD) or large, soft drusen more typical of the age-related macular degeneration (AMD). We studied the oligosaccharide composition of drusen in MCGN type II and AMD using lectin histochemistry
Methods: :
Formalin fixed and paraffin wax embedded tissue from both eyes of a 38 year old female who died from end-stage renal failure due to type II MCGN was compared with tissue from 6 eyes with AMD. The patient with type II MCGN had previously undergone fluorescein angiography which showed both BLD and soft drusen. Oligosaccharides were compared using a panel of twenty biotinylated lectins and an avidin-peroxidase DAB-cobalt revealing system, with and without neuraminidase pre-treatment.
Results: :
The lectin-binding patterns of BLD and soft drusen in MCGN-II and AMD were similar.
Conclusions: :
Drusen in AMD and MCGN-II may be a common end-result of a variety of systemic and ocular processes which is consistent with the literature that both may be a result of uncontrolled activation of the complement system.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration • glycoconjugates/glycoproteins • drusen