![]() (1) Hypoxia and A2E each decreased viability of RPE cells in a time-dependent manner. Calpain inhibitor, SNJ-1945, and pan-caspase inhibitor, z-VAD-fmk, were used to confirm activation of the proteases. Immunoblotting was used to detect activation of calpain and caspase. Monkey primary RPE cells were cultured under hypoxic conditions in a Gaspak pouch or cultured with synthetic A2E. ![]() ![]() The purpose of the present study is to compare activation of calpain and caspase in monkey RPE cells cultured under hypoxia or with A2E. Several mechanisms have been proposed: (1) age-related failure of the choroidal vasculature leads to loss of RPE (2) RPE dysfunctions due to accumulation of phagocytized, but unreleased A2E ( N-retinylidene- N-retinylethanolamine) (3) zinc deficiency activation of calpain and caspase proteases, leading to cell death. AMD is the leading cause of human vision loss after 65 years of age.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |