The utilization of fluorescence to identify the components of lipofuscin by imaging mass spectrometry.

ABSTRACT: Lipofuscin, an aging marker in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) associated with the development of age-related macular degeneration, is primarily characterized by its fluorescence. The most abundant component of RPE lipofuscin is N-retinylidene-N-retinylethanolamine (A2E) but its exact composition is not known due to the complexity of the RPE extract. In this study, we utilized MALDI imaging to find potential molecules responsible for lipofuscin fluorescence in RPE tissue from Abca4(-/-) , Sv129, and C57Bl6/J mice aged 2 and 6 months. To assert relationships, the individual images in the MALDI imaging datasets were correlated with lipofuscin fluorescence recorded from the same tissues following proper registration. Spatial correlation information, which is usually lost in bioanalytics,

SUBMITTER: Ablonczy Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4017854 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature