Students are currently performing experiments on native and cultured RPE cells, using antibodies to localize the different myosins involved in phagocytosis, including myosin classes II, VI, VII, and IX. We have recently produced a retina-specific myosin class VI antibody that will enable us to localize this important myosin in both RPE and neural retinal cells using frozen sections. Students are currently examining albino rat RPE at different time points during the 24-hour day in order to determine whether myosin localization changes during the peak period of ROS shedding approximately one hour after light onset. Students are also determining the co-localization of actin and ADF using Western blotting, immunocytochemistry and immunoelectron microscopy. Our studies on ADF continue to generate new questions involving the regulatory basis for actin filament formation during phagocytosis, and we are beginning our investigations on LIM kinase and the Rac/Rho pathways. We also plan to use adenoviral vectors of ADF mutants which we have obtained to transfect a cultured RPE cell line we are utilizing, in order to examine the regulation and role of ADF during the various stages of phagocytosis; many student projects will be generated from this work during the coming years in our laboratory.

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Last modified July 10, 2002