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Tissue Retention Of Norrin: A Ligand Required For Retinal Vascularization, Lavan Khandan

Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Graduate Theses & Dissertations

The Norrin ligand is a small (14 kDa) cystine-knot protein, required for the proper vascularization of retinal, cerebellar and inner ear neural tissue. Both inherited human disorders and murine genetic studies implicate Norrin mutations in major ocular and visual defects, including retinal hypovascularization. In this thesis, I describe the property of Norrin enrichment at specific layers in the retina. I address the question of whether proper Norrin distribution in retinal tissue is required for vascularization. To do so, I used ex vivo ligand in-situ staining to interrogate differences amongst vertebrate Norrin orthologues in retinal tissue retention. I then used sequence ...