An Immunohistochemical Study of Gelsolin Immunoreactivity in Corneal Amyloidosis

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A variant of the actin-modulating protein gelsolin has recently been identified as a component of the amyloid deposits in familial amyloidosis, Finnish type (Meretoja's syndrome), and has been demonstrated immunohistochemically in amyloid deposits in the cornea, and in the skin, kidney, heart, thyroid gland, salivary gland, and rectum of patients with this disease. With the use of immunohistochemistry involving an antibody against gelsolin, we examined a corneal specimen from a patient with Meretoja's syndrome and 14 corneal specimens with lattice dystrophy type I, atypical lattice dystrophy, polymorphic amyloid degeneration, primary familial amyloidosis, or secondary corneal amyloidosis. Our results showed the presence of a gelsolin-related protein either within or around corneal amyloid deposits in nine of the 15 specimens and markedly increased anti-gelsolin immunoreactivity of the corneal keratocytes in 13 of the 15 diseased corneas. These data indicated that the accumulation of gelsolin may be seen in various forms of amyloidosis and may not be confined to Meretoja's syndrome.

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    Shared gelsolin antigenicity between familial amyloidosis Finnish type (FAF) and one form of familial lattice corneal dystrophy (LCD) with polyneuropathy from the United States

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    This study was supported in part by grant Lo 453/1-1 from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn, Germany (Dr. Loeffler); core grant EY1792 from the National Eye Institute, Bethesda, Maryland; gifts from the Lions of Illinois Foundation, Maywood, Illinois; and an unrestricted research grant from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc., New York, New York (University of Illinois at Chicago Eye Center).

    Reprint requests to Mark O. M. Tso, M.D., Georgiana Dvorak Theobald Ophthalmic Pathology Laboratory, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Lions of Illinois Eye Research Institute, UIC Eye Center, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, 1855 W. Taylor St., Chicago, IL 60612.

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