Abstract
Cell polarity during eye development determines the normal retinal lamination and differentiation of photoreceptor cells in the retina. In vertebrates, blood vessel epicardial substance (Bves) is known to play an important role in the formation and maintenance of the tight junctions essential for epithelial cell polarity. In the current study, we generated a transgenic zebrafish Bves (zbves) promoter-EGFP zebrafish line to investigate the expression pattern of Bves in the retina and to study the role of zbves in retinal lamination. Immunostaining with different specific antibodies from retinal cells and transmission electron microscopy were used to identify the morphological defects in normal and Bves knockdown zebrafish. In normal zebrafish, Bves is located at the apical junctions of embryonic retinal neuroepithelia during retinogenesis; later, it is strongly expressed around inner plexiform layer (IPL) and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). In contrast, a loss of normal retinal lamination and cellular polarity was found with undifferentiated photoreceptor cells in Bves knockdown zebrafish. Herein, our results indicated that disruption of Bves will result in a loss of normal retinal lamination.
Highlights
The vertebrate retina can be used as a model to study cell patterning and cell fate determination within the central nervous system, from which the retina is derived; the retina is observed and accessible during development [1]
The formation of different ocular layers relies on the tight junctions to anchor the changing tissue shape and cellular polarities [25], and the function of blood vessel epicardial substance (Bves) in tight junctions has been confirmed in this process and described in many studies [21, 23, 26]
We found that Bves can be expressed earlier in single-layer epithelia of the envelope layer (EVL) and later expressed in the ocular surface epithelium, lens, and retina of the eye (Figure 1)
Summary
The vertebrate retina can be used as a model to study cell patterning and cell fate determination within the central nervous system, from which the retina is derived; the retina is observed and accessible during development [1]. The neural retina in vertebrates differentiates between a sheet of multipotent and proliferating neuroepithelial cells, undergoing a dramatic morphogenetic change that depends on a proper epithelial polarity and integrity to reshape the original cell layers during retinogenesis [2]. Cell polarity is a major feature of vertebrate photoreceptors, each of which is further subdivided into four parts in the developed retina: an outer segment (OS), an inner segment (IS), a cell body (CB), and a synaptic terminus (ST) [4]. The differentiation of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is related to the development of photoreceptors [5, 6]. The establishment and regulation of junctional components are indispensable for the function and the integrity of RPE and photoreceptor cells in retinogenesis.
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