The small leucine-rich repeat proteoglycan (SLRPs) family of proteins currently consists of five classes, based on their structural composition and chromosomal location. As biologically active components of the extracellular matrix (ECM), SLRPs were known to bind to various collagens, having a role in regulating fibril assembly, organization and degradation. More recently, as a function of their diverse proteins cores and glycosaminoglycan side chains, SLRPs have been shown to be able to bind various cell surface receptors, growth factors, cytokines and other ECM components resulting in the ability to influence various cellular functions. Their involvement in several signaling pathways such as Wnt, transforming growth factor-b and epidermal growth factor receptor also highlights their role as matricellular proteins. SLRP family members are expressed during neural development and in adult neural tissues, including ocular tissues. This review focuses on describing SLRP family members involvement in neural development with a brief summary of their role in non-neural ocular tissues and in response to neural injury.

Coenzyme A (CoA) is a ubiquitous and fundamental intracellular cofactor. CoA acts as a carrier of metabolically important carboxylic acids in the form of CoA thioesters and is an obligatory component of a multitude of catabolic and anabolic reactions. Acetyl CoA is a CoA thioester derived from catabolism of all major carbon fuels. This metabolite is at a metabolic crossroads, either being further metabolised as an energy source or used as a building block for biosynthesis of lipids and cholesterol. In addition, acetyl CoA serves as the acetyl donor in protein acetylation reactions, linking metabolism to protein post-translational modifications. Recent studies in yeast and cultured mammalian cells have suggested that the intracellular level of acetyl CoA may play a role in the regulation of cell growth, proliferation and apoptosis, by affecting protein acetylation reactions. Yet, how the levels of this metabolite change in vivo during the development of a vertebrate is not known. We measured levels of acetyl CoA, free CoA and total short chain CoA esters during the early embryonic development of Xenopus laevis using HPLC. Acetyl CoA and total short chain CoA esters start to increase around midblastula transition (MBT) and continue to increase through stages of gastrulation, neurulation and early organogenesis. Pre-MBT embryos contain more free CoA relative to acetyl CoA but there is a shift in the ratio of acetyl CoA to CoA after MBT, suggesting a metabolic transition that results in net accumulation of acetyl CoA. At the whole-embryo level, there is an apparent correlation between the levels of acetyl CoA and levels of acetylation of a number of proteins including histones H3 and H2B. This suggests the level of acetyl CoA may be a factor, which determines the degree of acetylation of these proteins, hence may play a role in the regulation of embryogenesis.

The African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, is a widely used model organism for tissue development. We have followed the process of corneal development closely in Xenopus and examined the corneal ultrastructure at each stage during its formation. Xenopus cornea development starts at stage 25 from a simple embryonic epidermis overlying the developing optic vesicle. After detachment of the lens placode which takes place around stage 30, cranial neural crest cells start to invade the space between the lens and the embryonic epidermis to construct the corneal endothelium. At stage 41, a second wave of migratory cells containing presumptive keratocytes invades the matrix leading to the formation of inner cornea and outer cornea. Three-dimensional electron microscopic examination shows that a unique cell mass, the stroma attracting center, connects the two layers like the center pole of a tent. After stage 48, many secondary stromal keratocytes individually migrate to the center and form the stroma layer. At stage 60, the stroma space is largely filled by collagen lamellae and keratocytes, and the stroma attracting center disappears. At early metamorphosis, the embryonic epithelium gradually changes to the adult corneal epithelium, which is covered by microvilli. Around stage 62 the embryonic epithelium thickens and a massive cell death is observed in the epithelium, coinciding with eyelid opening. After metamorphosis, the frog cornea has attained the adult structure of three cellular layers, epithelium, stroma, and endothelium, and two acellular layers between the cellular layers, namely the Bowman's layer and Descemet's membrane. After initial completion, Xenopus cornea, in particular the stroma, continues to thicken and enlarge throughout the lifetime of the animal. In the adult, a p63 positive limbus-like wavy structure is observed at the peripheral edge of the cornea. Proliferation analysis shows that the basal corneal epithelial cells actively divide and there are a small number of proliferating cells among the stroma and endothelial cells. This study shows that the development and structure of Xenopus cornea is largely conserved with human although there are some unique processes in Xenopus.

Tgfbi, a fasciclin family extracellular matrix protein, has various roles in human diseases from corneal dystrophies to cancer. However, the molecular mechanisms that underlie its functions are poorly understood. Here, we studied the role of Tgfbi during Xenopus embryogenesis. During gastrulation and immediately after, Xtgfbi is expressed at developmentally important signaling centers including the dorsal marginal zone, notochord and floorplate. Xtgfbi knockdown by anti-sense morpholinos causes defective organizer induction, patterning and differentiation of muscle, neuron and neural crests, similar to suppression of canonical Wnt signaling. In Xenopus embryos and animal caps as well as DLD-1 cells, we show that Tgfbi is strongly required for the full activation of the canonical Wnt pathway by promoting phosphorylation of GSK3β and consequently enhancing the stabilization and nuclear localization of β-catenin. Further analysis shows that Tgfbi is likely to promote GSK3β phosphorylation through integrin-linked kinase.