Electron tomography of fiber cell cytoplasm and dense cores of multilamellar bodies from human age-related nuclear cataracts.

ABSTRACT: Human nuclear cataract formation is a multi-factorial disease with contributions to light scattering from many cellular sources that change their scattering properties over decades. The aging process produces aggregation of cytoplasmic crystallin proteins, which alters the protein packing and texture of the cytoplasm. Previous studies of the cytoplasmic texture quantified increases in density fluctuations in protein packing and theoretically predicted the corresponding scattering. Multilamellar bodies (MLBs) are large particles with a core of crystallin cytoplasm that have been suggested to be major sources of scattering in human nuclei. The core has been shown to condense over time such that the refractive index increases compared to the adjacent aged and textured cytoplasm. Electron tomo

SUBMITTER: Costello MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3722609 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature