engleski

Proteomic profiling of rat retina – a model for studing the macular degeneration pathogenesis

In this study we performed a proteomic profiling of rat retina in order to investigate in details the protein expression changes occurring during age-related macular degeneration (AMD). As a model for AMD we employed the in vivo model on rats. A total of 36 rats of both genders were grown equally and divided into 3 equal groups each containing 12 rats. One group was used as a control and two other groups were irradiated with different artificial sources of radiation. Group A was irradiated with UV-A radiation (wave length of 365 nm for 10 minutes) while the group B was irradiated with UV-B radiation (wave length of 302 nm for 10 minutes). These conditions were established during previous field research in the island of Rab that covered data of average exposures of population and the cumulative effect of irradiation for the period of 20 years. For the proteomic profiling, the rat retinas were enucleated, homogenized underliquid nitrogen and subsequently lysed with a common 2-DE detergent (7M urea, 2M thiourea, 4% (w/v) CHAPS, 1% (w/v) DTT). The total protein mixture was consequently resolved by 2-DE gel-electrophoresis. The image analysis revealed 36 proteins whose levels were elevated more than 3-fold among treated groups in comparison with normal retinas (Figure 1).Upon image analysis, the identification of differentially expressed proteins was performed by using the MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometer.. By integrating identified proteins into the rat protein-protein interaction maps, we will be able to obtain a predictive interactome that depicts the cellular processes related to the AMD progression and will derive new perspective into the pathway signaling and molecular mechanisms included in AMD.

macular degeneration; non ionizing radiation; proteomics

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