Visualizing Cell Death in Live Retina: Using Calpain Activity Detection as a Biomarker for Retinal Degeneration.

ABSTRACT: Calpains are a family of calcium-activated proteases involved in numerous disorders. Notably, previous studies have shown that calpain activity was substantially increased in various models for inherited retinal degeneration (RD). In the present study, we tested the capacity of the calpain-specific substrate t-BOC-Leu-Met-CMAC to detect calpain activity in living retina, in organotypic retinal explant cultures derived from wild-type mice, as well as from rd1 and Rho^P23H/+ RD-mutant mice. Test conditions were refined until the calpain substrate readily detected large numbers of cells in the photoreceptor layer of RD retina but not in wild-type retina. At the same time, the calpain substrate was not obviously toxic to photoreceptor cells. Comparison of calpain

SUBMITTER: Belhadj S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8999672 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature