title: Cleavage of amino acid residue(s) from the N-terminal region of alpha A- and alpha B-crystallins in human crystalline lens during aging.
abstract: The current study reports for the first time a post-translational modification at the N-terminal region of alpha A- and alpha B-crystallins in normal human lens. The post-translational modification involves a loss of amino acid residues from the N-terminal region. We found three types of losses of N-terminal amino acid(s) from alpha-crystallin. One is the loss of the N-terminal amino acid residues 1-3 from alpha A-crystallin in aged lenses of the age 70 group. The other two modifications were found in alpha B-crystallin. One is the loss of Met(1) of the N-terminus and the other is the loss of 6 amino acids from the N-terminal region. These phenomena were observed in the lenses > 40 age group. Recent studies suggest that the N-terminal region of alpha-crystallin may play a chaperone-like role at the molecular level. These losses of amino acids from the N-terminal region may affect this molecular chaperone-like activity as well as the transparent properties of the human lens.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Meijo University, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kamei
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Iwase
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Masuda
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D003459:Crystallins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D006801:Humans; D007908:Lens, Crystalline / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D016339:Spectrometry, Mass, Fast Atom Bombardment
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D003459:Crystallins