Immunogold-EM localization of actin and vimentin filaments in relation to polygonal arrays in lens epithelium in situ

Methodologies to unlock the molecular expression and cellular structure of ocular lens epithelial cells

The transparent ocular lens in the anterior chamber of the eye is responsible for fine focusing of light onto the retina. The lens is entirely cellular with bulk of the tissue composed of fiber cells, and the anterior hemisphere of the lens is covered by a monolayer of epithelial cells. Lens epithelial cells are important for maintaining fiber cell homeostasis and for continual growth of the lens tissue throughout life. Cataracts, defined as any opacity in the lens, remain the leading cause of blindness in the world. Following cataract surgery, lens epithelial cells can undergo a process of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), leading to secondary cataracts due to posterior capsular opacification (PCO). Since the epithelial cells make up only a small fraction of the lens, specialized techniques are required to study lens epithelial cell biology and pathology. Studies using native lens epithelial cells often require pooling of samples to obtain enough cells to make sufficient samples for traditional molecular biology techniques. Here, we provide detailed protocols that enable the study of native mouse lens epithelial cells, including immunostaining of the native lens epithelium in flat mounts, extraction of RNA and proteins from pairs of lens epithelial monolayers, and isolation of lens epithelial cells for primary culture. These protocols will enable researchers to gain better insight on representative molecular expression and cellular structure of lens epithelial cells. We also provide comparative data between native, primary culture, and immortalized lens epithelial cells and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each technique presented.

Age-related changes in eye lens biomechanics, morphology, refractive index and transparency

Life-long eye lens function requires an appropriate gradient refractive index, biomechanical integrity and transparency. We conducted an extensive study of wild-type mouse lenses 1-30 months of age to define common age-related changes. Biomechanical testing and morphometrics revealed an increase in lens volume and stiffness with age. Lens capsule thickness and peripheral fiber cell widths increased between 2 to 4 months of age but not further, and thus, cannot account for significant age-dependent increases in lens stiffness after 4 months. In lenses from mice older than 12 months, we routinely observed cataracts due to changes in cell structure, with anterior cataracts due to incomplete suture closure and a cortical ring cataract corresponding to a zone of compaction in cortical lens fiber cells. Refractive index measurements showed a rapid growth in peak refractive index between 1 to 6 months of age, and the area of highest refractive index is correlated with increases in lens nucleus size with age. These data provide a comprehensive overview of age-related changes in murine lenses, including lens size, stiffness, nuclear fraction, refractive index, transparency, capsule thickness and cell structure. Our results suggest similarities between murine and primate lenses and provide a baseline for future lens aging studies.

The lens actin filament cytoskeleton: Diverse structures for complex functions

The eye lens is a transparent and avascular organ in the front of the eye that is responsible for focusing light onto the retina in order to transmit a clear image. A monolayer of epithelial cells covers the anterior hemisphere of the lens, and the bulk of the lens is made up of elongated and differentiated fiber cells. Lens fiber cells are very long and thin cells that are supported by sophisticated cytoskeletal networks, including actin filaments at cell junctions and the spectrin-actin network of the membrane skeleton. In this review, we highlight the proteins that regulate diverse actin filament networks in the lens and discuss how these actin cytoskeletal structures assemble and function in epithelial and fiber cells. We then discuss methods that have been used to study actin in the lens and unanswered questions that can be addressed with novel techniques.

Lens cytoskeleton and after-cataract

Lens epithelial and other ocular cells contain complex arrays of actin filaments which might be expected to allow them to migrate following injury: specifically into the capsular sac in cases of extracapsular cataract extraction or traumatic cataract. To test the possibility, a culture system was developed using a melanotic strain of mice, in which migrating cells are often 'marked' by melanosomes. Injured lenses were cultured on permeable membranes in contact with nutrient medium, and surrounded by iridial tract fragments. After study by light and electron microscopy, it was established that both pigmented and unpigmented cells migrated from the surrounding explants, apparently along the substrate meniscus, to the outside of the lens capsule and then through the wound to the capsule interior. This study suggests a source of cells in development of after-cataract syndrome.

Lens intermediate filaments

The ocular lens assembles two separate intermediate filament systems sequentially with differentiation. Canonical 8-11 nm IFs composed of Vimentin are assembled in lens epithelial cells and younger fiber cells, while the fiber cell-specific beaded filaments are switched on as fiber cell elongation initiates. Some of the key features of both filament systems are reviewed.

Near-UV radiation disrupts filamentous actin in lens epithelial cells

Ultraviolet radiation in the near range (UVA) causes lens opacification and disrupts the actin cytoskeleton in rabbit and gray squirrel lenses. Changes were noted using transmission electron microscopy of tangential sections and rhodaminephalloidin fluorescence microscopy of epithelial whole mounts of irradiated and unirradiated lenses, and corresponded with gross cataract formation. Irradiated lenses lacked microfilament polygonal arrays at the inner surface of the apical plasma membrane (i.e., in the cell pole next to the lens fibers) in lens epithelia of both species; a condensed actin bundle was present instead. This bundle, and scattered small actin clumps in the cytoplasm, were identified by immunogold TEM, using a specific antibody and a secondary antibody conjugated with colloidal gold. Similar techniques showed breakdown of tubulin and vimentin, but after longer intervals than for the breakdown of actin. Generalized cytologic damage was also present in epithelial cells, but not in the underlying cortical lens fibers. Damage began to occur after 4 hr of irradiation and became more severe with increased exposure. Shielded controls remained clear, had normal cytology and polygonal arrays, and no clumping of actin filaments.

The effects of near-UV radiation on elasmobranch lens cytoskeletal actin

The role of near-UV radiation as a cytoskeletal actin-damaging agent was investigated. Two procedures were used to analyse fresh smooth dogfish (Mustelus canis) eye lenses that were incubated for up to 22 hr in vitro, with elasmobranch Ringer's medium, and with or without exposure to a near-UV lamp (emission principally at 365 nm; irradiance of 2.5 mW cm-2). These were observed histologically using phalloidin-rhodamine specific staining and by transmission electron microscopy. In addition, solutions of purified polymerized rabbit muscle actin were exposed to the same UV conditions and depolymerization was assayed by ultracentrifugation and high-pressure liquid chromatography. While the two actins studied do differ very slightly in some amino acid sequences, they would react physically nearly identically. The results showed that dogfish lenses developed superficial opacities due to near-UV exposure. Whole mounts of lens epithelium exhibited breakdown of actin filaments in the basal region of the cells within 18 hr of UV exposure. TEM confirmed the breakdown of actin filaments due to UV exposure. SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting positively identified actin in these cells. Direct exposure of purified polymerized muscle actin in polymerizing buffer led to an increase in actin monomer of approximately 25% in the UV-exposed solutions within 3-18 hr, whether assayed by ultracentrifugation or HPLC. The above indicates that elasmobranch lens epithelial cells contain UV-labile actin filaments, and that near-UV radiation, as is present in the sunlit environment, can break down the actin structure in these cells. Furthermore, breakdown of purified polymerized muscle actin does occur due to near-UV light exposure.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Investigation of lens glycolytic enzymes: species distribution and interaction with supramolecular order

Distribution of several glycolytic enzymes in the lenses of different vertebrate species and their organization in the calf lenses were studied. Though no general pattern of enzyme activities in different species is discernible, high activities of TPI followed, in decreasing order, by GAPDH, enolase, PK, LDH and aldolase appear to be more common. Our observation on the unusually high activities of aldolase in the pig, enolase in the sheep and LDH in the duck lens are interesting in view of the already known dual function of LDH as an enzyme and a structural protein (epsilon-crystallin) in duck. Controlled treatment with detergents Brij-58 and Triton X-100 caused distinctly differential purturbations in the lens cells. In spite of fiber membrane disruption and partial actin dissolution by Brij-58, no significant increase in the release of glycolytic enzymes compared to control was observed. This suggests that none of the enzymes existed as a completely soluble and freely diffusible fraction. But treatment with a strong detergent (Triton X-100) caused the release of higher amounts of enzymes suggesting either a direct or indirect interaction with the cytomatrix components. Aldolase appears to be maximally bound in the cytosol followed by TPI, GAPDH, LDH and PK in decreasing order. Although thin lens slices were incubated with the detergents for a total period of 40 min and the loss of fiber architecture and organization confirmed by light microscopy, in the Triton X-100 treated tissues less than 25% of the total activity of any enzyme except TPI appeared in the bathing medium.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Development of actin polygonal arrays in rabbit lens epithelial cells

In searching for a clue to the role of actin filament bundles organized into polygonal arrays, or geodomes, in lens epithelial cells, we examined several physical events occurring in the young rabbit lens which may initiate their formation. We used NZW rabbits between the ages of 24 days gestation and 50 days postnatal. Data were obtained from TEM, SEM and fluorescence microscopy. Parameters measured were lens weights, apical surface areas of cells in epithelial whole mounts, epithelial cell thickness, and timing of eyelid opening, breakdown of the tunica vasculosa lentis (TVL) and formation of the ciliary zonules; these findings were correlated with the first signs of development of the arrays. Polygonal arrays formed slowly beginning at one to two days after birth, and with advancing time these thickened and made more numerous connections with the lateral plasma membranes. Development of the arrays was not correlated with onset of vision or disappearance of the TVL or a sudden increase in cell area, since these events occur postnatally at about 9-10 days, nor with the development of zonular fibers since these are already in place at 24 days of gestation. Only lens weights showed a dramatic increase between 24 days gestation and birth. It is surmised that the expanding lens mass may be involved in some way in signaling the organization of actin filaments into geodomes.

Microtubules rich in post-translationally modified alpha-tubulin form distinct arrays in frog lens epithelial cells

Isolated frog lens epithelia were stained with antibodies against tyrosinated, detyrosinated or acetylated alpha-tubulin and observed by several means including a scanning confocal microscope. The most prominent feature of Rana pipiens lens cells was a primary cilium close to the apical surface of the cells above the centrosome. This structure was associated with microtubules rich in modified alpha-tubulin. The cilium was less pronounced but still discernible in the cells of another species R. ridibunda. In both species, the modified (acetylated or detyrosinated) microtubules formed arrays spatially distinct from the unmodified (tyrosinated) microtubules. The modified microtubules formed a basket of microtubules with a curly distribution around the nucleus while the tyrosinated array consisted predominantly of rather straighter microtubules running from the apical centrosome to the cell periphery, down the lateral sides of the cells and across the basal surface adjacent to the lens capsule and basement membrane. It is concluded that the organization of modified microtubules previously described for several types of cultured cells may represent a remnant of the three-dimensional perinuclear array of such microtubules described here for the cells of an intact epithelium.

Immunocytochemical evidence for an actin-myosin system in lens epithelial cells

Since filamentous actin had been shown earlier to exist in lens epithelial and fiber cells, we inquired whether this could represent a contractile system with myosin and other actin-associated proteins. We resolved this question in freshly removed or organ-cultured rabbit and squirrel lens epithelial whole mounts using immunocytochemical techniques and by immunoblots of extracts separated by electrophoresis. In the former, methods were developed using long fixation times and long incubation in primary antibodies and biotinylated second antibodies visualized by streptavidin immunofluorescence and by diaminobenzidine peroxidase. Myosin was found to be localized along the filamentous rays and at central vertices of polygonal arrays situated at the apices of epithelial cells. It was not clear whether myosin and actin occurred together along the same or adjacent filaments in a bundle. Tubulin and vimentin were found deeper in the cells and were not aligned with actin and myosin filaments. Control lens epithelia treated similarly except for deletion of the primary antibodies showed no staining. As positive controls, pieces of glycerinated sartorius muscle exhibited characteristic cross-banded patterns of actin and myosin when incubated with the same reagents used on the lens epithelium. Denatured extracts of rabbit lens epithelium and of cortical fiber cells separated by electrophoresis and transferred to nitrocellulose paper, stained specifically with the same myosin and tubulin antibodies used in the immunocytochemistry experiments. The molecular weight profile of the myosin polypeptide indicated that lens tissue has myosin II. We conclude that a contractile system exists in lens epithelial and cortical fiber cells, although the function is not understood at this time. We conjecture that the system may act to stabilize lens shape by providing contractile tone.

Comparative study of actin filament patterns in lens epithelial cells. Are these determined by the mechanisms of lens accommodation?

Actin filament patterns in lens epithelia from animals of various taxonomic groups were studied using rhodamine phalloidin fluorescence microscopy of epithelial whole mounts and transmission electron microscopy of tangential sections. The results were compared with the accommodative mechanism operating in each case as reported in the literature. Lenses that accommodate by deformation of the anterior surface, in squirrel, chipmunk, rabbit, monkey and human, showed polygonal arrays (PAs) at the apical end of the epithelial cells. Lenses that translate as a whole, in shark, bony fish and frog, showed stress fibers (SFs) at the basal or apical end of the cells. No specialized actin pattern was seen in turtle and bird, which have lenses that are squeezed into an anterior lenticonus; cat, where the lens is translated forward; or rat, cow and most mice, which have no defined accommodation. In exception, certain strains of laboratory mice did show sequestered actin bundles (SABs) and/or PAs. Based on our findings, we conclude that PAs, which resemble geodesic domes, do not take an active part in near-point accommodation; but like SFs, may serve to resist overextension by internal pressure of the fiber mass or by zonular tension.