Cytoskeletal Proteins in Myotendinous Junctions of Human Extraocular Muscles

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and the myopathy seen in the mdx mouse both result from absence of the protein dystrophin. Structural similarities between dystrophin and other cytoskeletal proteins, its enrichment at myotendinous junctions, and its indirect association with laminin mediated by a transmembrane glycoprotein complex suggest that one of dystrophin's functions in normal muscle is to form one of the links between the actin cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix. Unlike Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients, mdx mice suffer only transient muscle necrosis, and are able to regenerate damaged muscle tissue. The present study tests the hypothesis that mdx mice partially compensate for dystrophin's absence by upregulating one or more dystrophin-independent mechanisms of cytoskeleton-membrane association. Quantitative analysis of immunoblots of adult mdx muscle samples showed an increase of approximately 200% for vinculin and talin, cytoskeletal proteins that mediate thin filament-membrane interactions at myotendinous junctions. Blots also showed an increase (143%) in the dystrophin-related protein called utrophin, another myotendinous junction constituent, which may be able to substitute for dystrophin directly. Muscle samples from 2-week-old animals, a period immediately preceding the onset of muscle necrosis, showed no significant differences in protein concentration between mdx and controls. Quantitative analyses of confocal images of myotendinous junctions from mdx and control muscles show significantly higher concentrations of talin and vinculin at the myotendinous junctions of mdx muscle. These findings indicate that mdx mice may compensate in part for the absence of dystrophin by increased expression of other molecules that subsume dystrophin's mechanical function.

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Structural Organization and Distribution of Fiber Types in Extraocular Muscles of Cats

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100093420 ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 30 ◽

pp. 34-35

Author(s):

Asish C. Nag ◽

Lee D. Peachey

Keyword(s):

Fiber Type ◽

Light And Electron Microscopy ◽

Small Diameter ◽

Extraocular Muscles ◽

Fiber Types ◽

Distinctive Features ◽

Superior Rectus ◽

Adult Cats ◽

Different Diameters ◽

Orbital Region

Cat extraocular muscles consist of two regions: orbital, and global. The orbital region contains predominantly small diameter fibers, while the global region contains a variety of fibers of different diameters. The differences in ultrastructural features among these muscle fibers indicate that the extraocular muscles of cats contain at least five structurally distinguishable types of fibers.Superior rectus muscles were studied by light and electron microscopy, mapping the distribution of each fiber type with its distinctive features. A mixture of 4% paraformaldehyde and 4% glutaraldehyde was perfused through the carotid arteries of anesthetized adult cats and applied locally to exposed superior rectus muscles during the perfusion.

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Modulated polarization microscopy displays the dynamics of cytoskeletal structures in living, motile cells

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100140889 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 53 ◽

pp. 902-903

Author(s):

J. R. Kuhn ◽

M. Poenie

Keyword(s):

Mitotic Spindle ◽

Actin Filaments ◽

Cell Shape ◽

Dynamic Structure ◽

Living Cells ◽

Cytoskeletal Proteins ◽

Polarization Microscopy ◽

Video Enhancement ◽

Ultrastructural Studies ◽

Motile Cells

Cell shape and movement are controlled by elements of the cytoskeleton including actin filaments an microtubules. Unfortunately, it is difficult to visualize the cytoskeleton in living cells and hence follow it dynamics. Immunofluorescence and ultrastructural studies of fixed cells while providing clear images of the cytoskeleton, give only a static picture of this dynamic structure. Microinjection of fluorescently Is beled cytoskeletal proteins has proved useful as a way to follow some cytoskeletal events, but long terry studies are generally limited by the bleaching of fluorophores and presence of unassembled monomers.Polarization microscopy has the potential for visualizing the cytoskeleton. Although at present, it ha mainly been used for visualizing the mitotic spindle. Polarization microscopy is attractive in that it pro vides a way to selectively image structures such as cytoskeletal filaments that are birefringent. By combing ing standard polarization microscopy with video enhancement techniques it has been possible to image single filaments. In this case, however, filament intensity depends on the orientation of the polarizer and analyzer with respect to the specimen.

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Intramuscular Nerve and Neuromuscular Junction Alteration In Extraocular Muscles of Diabetic Mice

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100120102 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 43 ◽

pp. 682-683

Author(s):

Bruce R. Pachter

Keyword(s):

Diabetes Mellitus ◽

Peripheral Nerves ◽

Sudden Onset ◽

Extraocular Muscles ◽

Diabetic Patients ◽

Oculomotor Palsy ◽

Third Nerve Palsy ◽

Patients With Diabetes ◽

Intramuscular Nerve ◽

Oculomotor Nerves

Diabetes mellitus is one of the commonest causes of neuropathy. Diabetic neuropathy is a heterogeneous group of neuropathic disorders to which patients with diabetes mellitus are susceptible; more than one kind of neuropathy can frequently occur in the same individual. Abnormalities are also known to occur in nearly every anatomic subdivision of the eye in diabetic patients. Oculomotor palsy appears to be common in diabetes mellitus for their occurrence in isolation to suggest diabetes. Nerves to the external ocular muscles are most commonly affected, particularly the oculomotor or third cranial nerve. The third nerve palsy of diabetes is characteristic, being of sudden onset, accompanied by orbital and retro-orbital pain, often associated with complete involvement of the external ocular muscles innervated by the nerve. While the human and experimental animal literature is replete with studies on the peripheral nerves in diabetes mellitus, there is but a paucity of reported studies dealing with the oculomotor nerves and their associated extraocular muscles (EOMs).

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Structural and Chemical Studies of Pathological Fibers in Human Neurofibrillary Degeneration

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s042482010012031x ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 43 ◽

pp. 726-729

Author(s):

K.S. Kosik ◽

L.K. Duffy ◽

S. Bakalis ◽

C. Abraham ◽

D.J. Selkoe

Keyword(s):

Monoclonal Antibodies ◽

Alzheimer Disease ◽

Human Brain ◽

Neurofibrillary Tangles ◽

Morphological Analysis ◽

High Specificity ◽

Cytoskeletal Proteins ◽

Neuritic Plaque ◽

Protein Chemistry ◽

Chemical Studies

The major structural lesions of the human brain during aging and in Alzheimer disease (AD) are the neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) and the senile (neuritic) plaque. Although these fibrous alterations have been recognized by light microscopists for almost a century, detailed biochemical and morphological analysis of the lesions has been undertaken only recently. Because the intraneuronal deposits in the NFT and the plaque neurites and the extraneuronal amyloid cores of the plaques have a filamentous ultrastructure, the neuronal cytoskeleton has played a prominent role in most pathogenetic hypotheses.The approach of our laboratory toward elucidating the origin of plaques and tangles in AD has been two-fold: the use of analytical protein chemistry to purify and then characterize the pathological fibers comprising the tangles and plaques, and the use of certain monoclonal antibodies to neuronal cytoskeletal proteins that, despite high specificity, cross-react with NFT and thus implicate epitopes of these proteins as constituents of the tangles.

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The Effect of Agonists and Antagonists of Platelet Aggregation on von Willebrand Factor-Mediated Platelet Agglutination

Thrombosis and Haemostasis ◽

10.1055/s-0038-1648192 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 65 (05) ◽

pp. 573-577 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jean McPherson ◽

Marjorie B Zucker ◽

Evelyn A Mauss ◽

Sandra Brownlea

Keyword(s):

Receptor Antagonist ◽

Intracellular Calcium ◽

Calcium Ions ◽

Inhibitory Action ◽

Platelet Rich Plasma ◽

Cytoskeletal Proteins ◽

A 23187 ◽

Sulphydryl Groups ◽

Affinity Receptor ◽

Adp Receptor

SummaryRistocetin-induced platelet agglutination (RIPA) in EDTA-treated citrated platelet-rich plasma was reduced to 49 ± 11% by 1.25 ΜM ADP, 41 ± 14% by 1 ΜM A 23187, and 26 ± 7% by 0.1 Μg/ml platelet activating factor (PAF). The effect of 5-110 ΜM epinephrine was not dose-dependent, but varied between donors, with RIPA from 56-100% of the control. The inhibitory effects of these agonists were not altered by prior treatment of platelets with aspirin. Prior addition of 200 ΜM ATP (an ADP receptor antagonist acting at both high and low affinity ADP receptors) prevented the inhibitory action of ADP but not that of A 23187 or PAF, suggesting that the inhibitory actions of the latter are not mediated by released ADP. As 700 ΜM 8-bromoadenosine 5-diphosphate (an ADP receptor antagonist acting mainly at the high affinity receptor) did not prevent ADP-induced inhibition of RIPA, interaction of ADP with the low affinity receptor is presumably responsible for its inhibitory action. As A 23187, but not phorbol myristate acetate (0.1 ΜM) inhibited RIPA, an increase in intracellular calcium ions rather than direct stimulation of protein kinase C appears to mediate agonist-induced inhibition. Cytochalasin B (10.5-21 ΜM), dibucaine (0.5-1 mM), and prostaglandin E1 (25 nM), added before or after the agonist, prevented or reversed ADP-, A23187-, and PAF-induced inhibition of RIPA, suggesting that the state of the platelet cytoskeleton affects inhibition. N-ethylmaleimide (0.25-0.5 mM), an agent that can penetrate cell membranes and block sulphydryl groups, prevented or reversed ADP, A 23187- and PAF-induced inhibition of RIPA, but 0.5 mM dithionitrobisbenzoic acid, a non-penetrating sulphydryl blocker, had no effect. Diamide (0.1-0.5 mM), an agent that can crosslink cytoskeletal proteins by oxidation of sulphydryl groups, reduced RIPA. Thus an increase in intracellular calcium ions with resultant cytoskeletal changes and reorganisation of intracellular sulphydryl groups may mediate the inhibitory action of agonists on RIPA.

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