Saturday, October 29, 2011
Hall 1-2 (San Jose Convention Center)
Retina has one of the highest rates of oxygen consumption and ATP demands in the body. However, cellular compartmentalization, the topological distribution of mitochondria, and compartment-specific energy needs creates a disconnection between energy consuming sites and retinal producing sites in retinal cells. The possible presence of the integrative metabolic system such as the network formed by adenylate kinase (AK) and creatine kinase (CK) isoforms, would explain how ATP concentrations are maintained in retinal cells or compartments where oxidative phosphorylation is not the primary source of ATP. Our goal was to test the hypothesis that metabolic enzymes responsible for the non-oxidative maintenance of ATP would be spatially distributed to specific metabolically active neuron populations in the retina. The spatial distribution and co-localization of CK and AK in specific cells and compartments within those cells was demonstrated using immunohistochemistry and laser-scanning confocal microscopy. Cytosolic isoforms of CK and AK show compartmental and cell specific expression in photoreceptors cells and amacrine cells.