| RETINAL AGE PIGMENTS GENERATED BY SELF-ASSEMBLING LYSOSOMOTROPIC DETERGENTS |
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| Author(s): ELDRED GE, LASKY MR |
| Source: NATURE Volume: 361 Issue: 6414 Pages: 724-726 Published: FEB 25 1993 |
| Times Cited: 246 References: 6 |
| Abstract: A UNIVERSAL biomarker of cellular ageing in eukaryotic post-mitotic cells is the appearance over time of autofluorescent lysosomal residual bodies called age pigments or lipofuscin granules1. Their role in the process of cellular ageing has been debated without resolution2. Neither the identity nor mechanism of formation of the fluorophores has been definitively determined. A post-mitotic cell type that accumulates large quantities of age pigments is the ocular retinal pigment epithelium2. We have now identified the major orange-emitting fluorophore of these pigments using fast-atom bombardment tandem mass spectrometry with collisional activation analysis4. It is an amphoteric quaternary amine that arises as a Schiff base reaction product of retinaldehyde and ethanolamine. This compound should display lysosomotropic detergent behaviour which would help explain many of the age-related changes shown in this cell. These results suggest a new role for Schiff base reaction products as lysosomotropic amines in the genesis of cellular age pigments. |
| Document Type: Article |
| Language: English |
| Reprint Address: ELDRED, GE (reprint author), UNIV MISSOURI, SCH MED, MASON INST OPHTHALMOL, COLUMBIA, MO 65212 USA |
| Publisher: MACMILLAN MAGAZINES LTD, PORTERS SOUTH, 4 CRINAN ST, LONDON, ENGLAND N1 9XW |
| Subject Category: Multidisciplinary Sciences |
| IDS Number: KN789 |
| ISSN: 0028-0836 |