GICERIN, A CELL-ADHESION MOLECULE, PARTICIPATES IN THE HISTOGENESIS OF RETINA

Gicerin is a novel cell adhesion molecule that belongs to the immunogl obulin superfamily. Gicerin protein adheres to neurite outgrowth facto r (NOF), an extracellular matrix protein in the laminin family, and al so exhibits hemophilic adhesion. Heterophilic adhesion of gicerin to N OF is thought to play an active role in neurite outgrowth of developin g retinal cells in vitro. In this study, we examined the adhesion acti vity of gicerin during the retinal development of Japanese quail using an antibody directed against gicerin, to elucidate the biological imp ortance of gicerin in retinal histogenesis, Immunohistochemical and We stern blot analysis showed that gicerin was highly expressed in the de veloping retina but suppressed in the mature retina. The aggregation o f neural retinal cells from 5-day embryonic quail retina was significa ntly inhibited when incubated with a polyclonal antibody to gicerin, s uggesting that gicerin protein participates in the adhesion of neural retinal cells of the developing retina Furthermore, histogenesis of re tina both in the organ cultures and in ovo embryos was severely disrup ted by incubation with a gicerin antibody, These findings provide evid ence that gicerin plays an important role in retinal histogenesis, (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.