RESUMO
ABCA4 gene mutations are the cause of a spectrum of ABCA4 retinopathies, and the most common juvenile macular degeneration is called Stargardt disease. ABCA4 has previously been observed almost exclusively in the retina. Therefore, studying the functional consequences of ABCA4 variants has required advanced molecular analysis techniques. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether human hair follicles may be used for molecular analysis of the ABCA4 gene splice-site variants in patients with ABCA4 retinopathies. We assessed ABCA4 expression in hair follicles and skin at mRNA and protein levels by means of real-time PCR and Western blot analyses, respectively. We performed cDNA sequencing to reveal the presence of full-length ABCA4 transcripts and analyzed ABCA4 transcripts from three patients with Stargardt disease carrying different splice-site ABCA4 variants: c.5312+1G>A, c.5312+2T>G and c.5836-3C>A. cDNA analysis revealed that c.5312+1G>A, c.5312+2T>G variants led to the skipping of exon 37, and the c.5836-3C>A variant resulted in the insertion of 30 nucleotides into the transcript. Our results strongly argue for the use of hair follicles as a model for the molecular analysis of the pathogenicity of ABCA4 variants in patients with ABCA4 retinopathies.
Assuntos
Transportadores de Cassetes de Ligação de ATP/genética , Folículo Piloso/metabolismo , Doenças Retinianas/genética , Doença de Stargardt/genética , Análise Mutacional de DNA , Éxons/genética , Feminino , Fibroblastos/metabolismo , Fibroblastos/patologia , Regulação da Expressão Gênica/genética , Folículo Piloso/patologia , Humanos , Queratinócitos/metabolismo , Queratinócitos/patologia , Degeneração Macular/genética , Degeneração Macular/patologia , Masculino , Melanócitos/metabolismo , Melanócitos/patologia , Mutação/genética , Linhagem , Cultura Primária de Células , Sítios de Splice de RNA/genética , Retina/metabolismo , Retina/patologia , Doenças Retinianas/patologia , Doença de Stargardt/patologiaRESUMO
Keratinocyte culture is a necessary and widely used tool in a variety of experimental dermatological and biomedical studies. Literature search has revealed a variety of different protocols of human primary keratinocyte isolation and culture. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to review and summarize current trends in human primary keratinocyte culture techniques. We present data on the most popular and effective methods of human keratinocyte isolation and cultivation obtained from screening of 945 papers published during the last 10 years.
