Annals of Anatomy 194 (2012) 334–338 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Annals of Anatomy journa l h o mepage: www.elsevier.de/aanat Research article Expression analysis of ADAM17 during mouse eye development  Saadettin Sel a,∗,1 , Thomas Kalinski b,1 , Isabelle Enssen a , Maja Kaiser a , Norbert Nass a , Stefanie Trau a , Gregor Wollensak a , Lars Bräuer c,d , Kristin Jäger c , Friedrich Paulsen c,d a Department of Ophthalmology (Experimental Ophthalmology), Martin Luther University Halle/Wittenberg, Erst-Grube-Str. 40, D-06120 Halle/Saale, Germany b Department of Pathology, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany c Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Martin Luther University Halle/Wittenberg, Halle/Saale, Germany d Department of Anatomy II, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 5 July 2011 Received in revised form 26 September 2011 Accepted 7 October 2011 Keywords: ADAM17 Gene expression Embryo Eye development Corneal epithelium Ciliary body epithelial cells Retinal vessels s u m m a r y ADAM17 (a disintegrin and metallopeptidase domain 17) is crucial for eye morphogenesis. In this study we analysed the expression pattern of ADAM17 during mouse eye development. ADAM17 expression in adult retina was examined using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and verification of the RT-PCR products by DNA sequencing. Immunohistochemistry was performed to evaluate the ADAM17 expression pattern in mouse eyes at developmental stages of embryonic day (E) 12, E14, E16, E18, postnatal day (P) 0, P1, P4, P7, P14, P 30 and P175 (adult). We detected ADAM17 mRNA in adult retina tissue. ADAM17 protein was expressed in non-pigmented ciliary epithelial cells and in retinal vessels from P7 onwards during eye development. In corneal epithelial cells and endothelium, ADAM17 protein was present from P14 onwards. Although, mice in which the functional ADAM17 gene is significantly reduced develop multiple eye malformations, the expression of ADAM17 is not ubiquitous over the entire eye. Its expression pattern during development suggests that not only TNF-alpha but additional membrane-anchored substrates of ADAM17 play an important role in eye formation. © 2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction During embryogenesis, the mammalian eye develops from all three blastodermic layers. The retina and retinal pigment epithe- lium (RPE) develop from the neuroectoderm whereas cornea and sclera arise mainly from the mesoderm and the lens is derived from the surface ectoderm (Graw, 2010; Kondoh, 2002). In humans, corneal epithelium consists of 5–7 cell layers which are regenerated continuously or after injury by limbal stem cells. Under physiological conditions, a complete turnover time of the corneal epithelium is about 7 days. During this renewal pro- cess, limbal stem cells develop a single layer of columnar basal cells resting on the basement membrane. The basal cells can proliferate and differentiate to suprabasal or wing cells. Finally, the wing cells evolve into 1–3 layers of superficial squamous cells. In particular, the basal cells of the corneal epithelium have  This work was supported in part by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SE 1995/1-1) and the Wilhelm-Roux program (FKZ 10/41) from Martin Luther Univer- sity Halle-Wittenberg. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 345 557 1878; fax: +49 345 557 1848. E-mail address: saadettinsel@googlemail.com (S. Sel). URL: http://www.medizin.uni-halle.de/kau/index.php?cid=1123 (S. Sel). 1 Both authors contributed equally to this work. several important functions. Besides generating new wing cells, basal cells secrete extracellular matrix molecules that form the basement membrane and are involved in the organization of the hemidesmosomes to stabilize the connection to the underlying basement membrane. Abnormalities in this attachment result clin- ically in recurrent corneal erosion syndromes or in persistent corneal epithelial defects (Pajoohesh-Ganji and Stepp, 2005). The ciliary epithelium consists of an outer pigmented ciliary epithelium facing the stroma of the ciliary body and an inner non-pigmented ciliary epithelium facing the vitreous cavity. By an active ion transport mechanism, ciliary epithelium is responsible for aqueous humor production that is crucial for the maintenance of a constant intraocular pressure. Dysregulation of the intraocular pressure leads to debilitating visual impairment (Delamere, 2005). The retinal blood vessels are highly organized to supply the retina with sufficient blood with minimal interference of the light path to the photoreceptors. During embryogenesis, the retinal vas- culature develops radially from the optic nerve head towards the periphery at the ganglion cell layer (GCL) forming the superficial vascular plexus. The superficial vessels branch into inner layers of the retina and form the deep vascular plexus along the outer edge of the inner nuclear layer (INL), and the intermediate vascu- lar plexus along the inner edge of the INL (Bromberg-White et al., 2009; Dorrell et al., 2007). 0940-9602/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.aanat.2011.10.008