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Ultrastructural and immunocytochemical analysis of the circumferential microfilament bundle in avian retinal pigmented epithelial cells in vitro

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Summary

The dedifferentiated phenotype of pigmented epithelial cells in vitro is bipotential and is effected by environmental alterations mediated by the cell surface and associated cytoskeleton. We have begun an investigation into the role that contractile microfilaments play in maintaining cell contact and cell shape in retinal pigmented epithelial cells in vitro. In this paper, we report a structural analysis of the intersection of the circumferential microfilament bundle with the cell membrane of cultured pigmented epithelial cells from chick retina. Techniques of electron microscopy, including freezefracturing and deep-etching, reveal that microfilaments of this bundle associate with a junctional complex in the apical cell compartment and with membrane domains which are not components of the junction. Microfilaments link with the cell membrane either at their termini or along the membrane-apposed surface of the circumferential bundle. Furthermore, we report the immunocytochemical localization of filamin (a high molecular weight actin-binding protein, which forms fiber bundles and sheet-like structures when bound with Factin in solution) in the circumferential/microf<ilament bundle.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Developmental Biology, National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Japan

    Ryuji Kodama & Goro Eguchi

  2. Department of Anatomy, University of New Mexico, School of Medicine, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

    Robert O. Kelley (Professor and Chairman)

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  1. Ryuji Kodama
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  2. Goro Eguchi
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  3. Robert O. Kelley
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Kodama, R., Eguchi, G. & Kelley, R.O. Ultrastructural and immunocytochemical analysis of the circumferential microfilament bundle in avian retinal pigmented epithelial cells in vitro. Cell Tissue Res 263, 29–40 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00318397

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00318397

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