PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

C L Makino

Publications and source records attributed to C L Makino.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Morphological, physiological, and biochemical changes in rhodopsin knockout mice.

Mutations in rod opsin, the visual pigment protein of rod photoreceptors, account for approximately 15% of all inherited human retinal degenerations. However, the physiological and molecular events underlying the disease process are not well understood. One approach to this question has been to study transgenic mice expressing opsin genes containing defined mutations. A caveat of this approach is that even the overexpression of normal opsin leads to photoreceptor cell degeneration. To overcome the problem, we have reduced or eliminated endogenous rod opsin content by targeted gene disruption. Retinas in mice lacking both opsin alleles initially developed normally, except that rod outer segments failed to form. Within months of birth, photoreceptor cells degenerated completely. Retinas from mice with a single copy of the opsin gene developed normally, and rods elaborated outer segments of normal size but with half the normal complement of rhodopsin. Photoreceptor cells in these retinas also degenerated but did so over a much slower time course. Physiological and biochemical experiments showed that rods from mice with a single opsin gene were approximately 50% less sensitive to light, had accelerated flash-response kinetics, and contained approximately 50% more phosducin than wild-type controls.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Spectral tuning in salamander visual pigments studied with dihydroretinal chromophores.

In visual pigments, opsin proteins regulate the spectral absorption of a retinal chromophore by mechanisms that change the energy level of the excited electronic state relative to the ground state. We have studied these mechanisms by using photocurrent recording to measure the spectral sensitivities of individual red rods and red (long-wavelength-sensitive) and blue (short-wavelength-sensitive) cones of salamander before and after replacing the native 3-dehydro 11-cis retinal chromophore with retinal analogs: 11-cis retinal, 3-dehydro 9-cis retinal, 9-cis retinal, and 5,6-dihydro 9-cis retinal. The protonated Schiff's bases of analogs with unsaturated bonds in the ring had broader spectra than the same chromophores bound to opsins. Saturation of the bonds in the ring reduced the spectral bandwidths of the protonated Schiff's bases and the opsin-bound chromophores and made them similar to each other. This indicates that torsion of the ring produces spectral broadening and that torsion is limited by opsin. Saturating the 5,6 double bond in retinal reduced the perturbation of the chromophore by opsin in red and in blue cones but not in red rods. Thus an interaction between opsin and the chromophoric ring shifts the spectral maxima of the red and blue cone pigments, but not that of the red rod pigment.

Ambystoma↗
PubMed1997

Prolonged photoresponses in transgenic mouse rods lacking arrestin.

Arrestins are soluble cytoplasmic proteins that bind to G-protein-coupled receptors, thus switching off activation of the G protein and terminating the signalling pathway that triggers the cellular response. Although visual arrestin has been shown to quench the catalytic activity of photoexcited, phosphorylated rhodopsin in a reconstituted system, its role in the intact rod cell remains unclear because phosphorylation alone reduces the catalytic activity of rhodopsin. Here we have recorded photocurrents of rods from transgenic mice in which one or both copies of the arrestin gene were disrupted. Photoresponses were unaffected when arrestin expression was halved, indicating that arrestin binding is not rate limiting for recovery of the rod photoresponse, as it is in Drosophila. With arrestin absent, the flash response displayed a rapid partial recovery followed by a prolonged final phase. This behaviour indicates that an arrestin-independent mechanism initiates the quench of rhodopsin's catalytic activity and that arrestin completes the quench. The intensity dependence of the photoresponse in rods lacking arrestin further suggests that, although arrestin is required for normal signal termination, it does not participate directly in light adaptation.

Adaptation, Ocular↗
PubMed1996

Phototransduction in transgenic mice.

Transgenic mice provide a powerful tool for elucidating the molecular mechanisms of phototransduction. Mice expressing a phosphorylation-deficient rhodopsin and mice deficient in arrestin are being used to study shutoff of photoactivated rhodopsin. These in vivo mouse studies indicate that shutoff is partially mediated by rhodopsin phosphorylation alone, but complete deactivation on a physiological time scale requires arrestin. Work on other transgenic mutant mice to unravel the function of recoverin and phosducin and to further define the role of the gamma subunit of phosphodiesterase is in progress. Transgenic mice are also being used to investigate how mutant proteins give rise to retinal disease and to develop therapeutic interventions.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1996

Multiple visual pigments in a photoreceptor of the salamander retina.

Although a given retina typically contains several visual pigments, each formed from a retinal chromophore bound to a specific opsin protein, single photoreceptor cells have been thought to express only one type of opsin. This design maximizes a cell's sensitivity to a particular wavelength band and facilitates wavelength discrimination in retinas that process color. We report electrophysiological evidence that the ultraviolet-sensitive cone of salamander violates this rule. This cell contains three different functional opsins. The three opsins could combine with the two different chromophores present in salamander retina to form six visual pigments. Whereas rods and other cones of salamander use both chromophores, they appear to express only one type of opsin per cell. In visual pigment absorption spectra, the bandwidth at half-maximal sensitivity increases as the pigment's wavelength maximum decreases. However, the bandwidth of the UV-absorbing pigment deviates from this trend; it is narrow like that of a red-absorbing pigment. In addition, the UV-absorbing pigment has a high apparent photosensitivity when compared with that of red- and blue-absorbing pigments and rhodopsin. These properties suggest that the mechanisms responsible for spectrally tuning visual pigments separate two absorption bands as the wavelength of maximal sensitivity shifts from UV to long wavelengths.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Mechanisms of rhodopsin inactivation in vivo as revealed by a COOH-terminal truncation mutant.

Although biochemical experiments suggest that rhodopsin and other receptors coupled to heterotrimeric guanosine triphosphate-binding proteins (G proteins) are inactivated by phosphorylation near the carboxyl (COOH)-terminus and the subsequent binding of a capping protein, little is known about the quenching process in vivo. Flash responses were recorded from rods of transgenic mice in which a fraction of the rhodopsin molecules lacked the COOH-terminal phosphorylation sites. In the single photon regime, abnormally prolonged responses, attributed to activation of individual truncated rhodopsins, occurred interspersed with normal responses. The occurrence of the prolonged responses suggests that phosphorylation is required for normal shutoff. Comparison of normal and prolonged single photon responses indicated that rhodopsin begins to be quenched before the peak of the electrical response and that quenching limits the response amplitude.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Rapid charge movements and photosensitivity of visual pigments in salamander rods and cones.

1. Photosensitivities of visual pigments were determined by measuring early receptor currents (ERCs) in voltage-clamped photoreceptors from larval salamanders. 2. As expected from previous work of others, the ERC elicited by a brief flash consisted of a rapid inward component followed by a larger and slower outward component. The magnitude of the outward component corresponded to the movement of about 0.18 electronic charge across the membrane per photoisomerization. 3. The time course of the ERC was independent of the flash intensity, the flash wavelength and the magnitude of the response. The outward component of the cone ERC declined about twice as rapidly as the outward component of the rod ERC.. 4. The amplitude of the ERC decreased as successive flashes bleached the cell's pigment. Using the proportional relation between the size of the ERC and the number of pigment molecules photoisomerized, photosensitivities of the native A2 pigments in rods, red-sensitive cones, blue-sensitive cones and UV-sensitive cones were determined. Calculated solution photosensitivities for rhodopsin, red-sensitive and blue-sensitive cone pigments were not significantly different and the average value for all three pigments at their respective absorption maxima was (7.3 +/- 1.6) x 10(-9) micron 2 molecule-1. A value of 44.0 x 10(-9) micron 2 molecule-1 was obtained in a single UV-sensitive cone. 5. Substitution of the native dehydroretinal chromophore in the red-sensitive cone pigment with 11-cis-retinal increased the solution photosensitivity to (9.6 +/- 0.62) x 10(-9) micron 2 molecule-1. 6. We conclude that cone pigments have large molecular absorption cross-sections and high quantum efficiencies of photoisomerization. These properties seem well suited for the receptive molecules of a highly sensitive, miniaturized transducer.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Axial gradients of rhodopsin in light-exposed retinal rods of the toad.

Exposure of an intact vertebrate eye to light bleaches the rhodopsin in the photoreceptor outer segments in spatially nonuniform patterns. Some axial bleaching patterns produced in toad rods were determined using microspectrophotometric techniques. More rhodopsin was bleached at the base of the outer segment than at the distal tip. The shape of the bleaching gradient varied with the extent of bleach and with the spectral content of the illuminant. Monochromatic light at the lambda max of the rhodopsin gave rise to the steepest bleaching gradients and induced the greatest changes in the form of the gradient with increasing extent of bleach. These results were consistent with a mathematical model for pigment bleaching in an unstirred sample. The model did not fit bleaching patterns resulting from special lighting conditions that promoted the photoregeneration of rhodopsin from the intermediates of bleaching. Prolonged light adaptation of toads could also produce axial rhodopsin gradients that were not fit by the bleaching model. Under certain conditions the axial gradient of rhodopsin in a rod outer segment reversed with time in the light: the rhodopsin content became highest at the base. This result could be explained by an interaction between the pattern of bleaching and the intracellular topography of regeneration.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Effects of modified chromophores on the spectral sensitivity of salamander, squirrel and macaque cones.

1. Chemically modified retinal chromophores were used to investigate the mechanisms that produce the characteristic spectral absorptions of cone pigments. Spectral sensitivities of single cones from the salamander, squirrel and macaque retina were determined by electrical recording. The chromophore was then replaced by bleaching the pigment and regenerating it with a retinal analogue. 2. Exposing a bleached cone to 9-cis-retinal for a brief period (less than 20 min) caused its flash sensitivity to recover to about 0.2 of the pre-bleach value. Similar exposure to a locked 6-s-cis, 9-cis analogue gave a recovery to about 0.03 of the pre-bleach value. 3. Unlike the flash sensitivity, the saturating photocurrent amplitude often recovered completely after bleaching and regenerating the pigment. 4. When the 3-dehydroretinal chromophore in the salamander long-wavelength-sensitive (red) cone was replaced with 11-cis-retinal, shortening the conjugated chain in the chromophore, the spectral sensitivity underwent a blue shift of 67 nm. 5. Pigments containing the planar-locked 6-s-cis.9-cis-retinal analogue absorbed at substantially longer wavelength than those containing unmodified 9-cis-retinal. The opsin shift, a measure of the protein's ability to modify the chromophore's absorption was larger for the locked analogue than for 9-cis-retinal. This suggests that the native chromophore assumes a twisted 6-s-cis conformation in these pigments. 6. The spectral sensitivities of red and green macaque cones containing 9-cis-retinal or planar-locked 6-s-cis.9-cis-retinal retained the 30 nm separation characteristic of the native pigments. This suggests that the different absorptions of of the 6-7 carbon bond in the retinal chromophore.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Intracellular topography of rhodopsin bleaching.

In a vertebrate eye, the photoreceptor cells are aligned so that most of the light passes through them lengthwise. At the light-transducing outer segment region of the photoreceptor, photons are absorbed in a time-varying, spatially dependent fashion. Because the transduction event is spatially localized around the site of photon absorption, the spatiotemporal patterns of light absorption in outer segments are an important receiver input characteristic. This aspect of receptor biophysics has now been measured; the results were consistent with a theoretical model proposed for bleaching of a pigment in an unstirred layer.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Age-related decrease in apomorphine modulation of acetylcholine release from rat striatal slices.

Release of [3H]acetylcholine ( [3H]ACh) was assessed in striatal slices from mature, middle-aged and senescent Wistar rats 8, 12 and 24 months of age, respectively. There was an age-related decline in basal release of [3H]ACh as a function of age which was correlated with a decline in accumulation of [3H]ACh. However, the most striking finding was the failure of apomorphine to inhibit KCl-induced [3H]ACh release in the senescent (24 months) animals. Striatal dopaminergic receptor losses in senescence apparently produce several subsequent changes in striatal function which ultimately result in the decline of motor-behavioral function.

Acetylcholine↗