ON THE MOLECULAR COMPOSITION AND PHYSICO‐CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF THE PSEUDO‐EXFOLIATION MATERIAL

Abstract

The protein tracer peroxidase was excluded from pseudo-exfoliation (PE) material [from human subjects]. But after the treatment of the PE material with cetylpyridinium-chloride, peroxidase penetrated into the material. This observation seemed to support the concept that the PE material was a gel of proteoglycans, from which peroxidase was excluded by an excluded volume effect. Microperoxidase penetrated into the superficial parts of the (untreated) PE material, and was regularly distributed according to 2 different patterns: along the PE fibrils, and along lines in the interfibrillar matrix, lines which could not be seen without the presence of microperoxidase. At both locations the microperoxidase reaction product was found at regular intervals, with spacings of about 53 nm. The interpretation was that both the fibrils and the interfibrillar matrix are composed of the same kind of long extended linear proteoglycan complexes, but with a different arrangement and density.