ovalbumin and Retinal-Degeneration

To determine whether the capacity to induce ACAID by antigen injection into the anterior chamber is altered in animals with genetically determined retinal degeneration and increased age.. Anterior chamber-associated immune deviation (ACAID) induced by injection of ovalbumin into the anterior chamber of the eye was studied in three rodent strains with different forms of hereditary retinal degeneration (Royal College of Surgeon [RCS] rats, retinal degeneration [rd] mice, and Norrie-Disease [ND] mice) and in different age groups (age range, 1-23 months). The data were compared with those of age-matched controls. Aqueous humors of rd mice, RCS rats, and age-matched congenic controls were investigated for concentrations of transforming growth factor-beta2 (TGF-beta2) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.. ACAID was readily induced in RCS rats and ND mice irrespective of amount of retinal degeneration or aging. In rd mice ACAID could be induced in young animals but not in animals more than 12 months of age. In old rd mice, loss of ACAID was accompanied by a marked reduction in total TGF-beta2 levels in aqueous humor.. Rd mice more than 1 year of age lose the capacity of the anterior chamber to support the induction of ACAID by intracameral injection of soluble protein antigen. Because loss of ACAID correlated with a decrease in TGF-beta2 concentration in aqueous humor, it is proposed that eyes of rd mice are unable to maintain an immunosuppressive microenvironment necessary for ACAID.

Topics: Aging; Animals; Anterior Chamber; Aqueous Humor; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Eye Diseases, Hereditary; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Mutant Strains; Ovalbumin; Rats; Rats, Mutant Strains; Retinal Degeneration; Transforming Growth Factor beta

Kittens and adult cats fed a semipurified diet containing casein developed a retinal degeneration that initially involved photoreceptor outer segments in the area centralis. By electron microscopy, cone and rod outer segment lamellar discs could be seen to become vesiculated, frayed, disoriented and twisted. Shortening and subsequent disappearance of outer segments was followed by loss of photoreceptor nuclei, primarily in the area centralis but also in the midperipheral retina. The electroretinogram (ERG) indicated progressive reduction in cone and rod amplitudes and a delay in the temporal aspects of the cone response. When dietary casein was replaced by egg albumin in the diets of cats with minimal to moderately advanced degeneration, the degeneration was reversed; rod ERG function and structure returned essentially to normal, whereas some abnormalities of cone outer segment structure and a delay in the temporal aspects of the cone ERG persisted. The data provide strong evidence that dietary casein is a factor in this retinopathy and suggest that an alteration in protein metabolism of the photoreceptor may result from the dietary protein inadequacy.

Topics: Animals; Caseins; Cats; Cell Nucleus; Dietary Proteins; Electroretinography; Fundus Oculi; Microscopy, Electron; Ovalbumin; Photoreceptor Cells; Protein Deficiency; Proteins; Retina; Retinal Degeneration