Immunohistochemical localization of cytosolic sialidase in photoreceptor cells.

The binding sites of the antibody to cytosolic sialidase on the rat and monkey photoreceptor cells were examined immunohistochemically using the avidin-biotinylated peroxidase method. In the rat photoreceptor cells, the antibody bound diffusely to the inner segment and the outer nuclear layers which are composed chiefly of rod cells. In the monkey photoreceptor cells, the antibody bound to the rod inner segments which were clearly distinct, morphologically, from the cone inner segments. The antibody also bound to the rod cell bodies in the outer nuclear layer. These binding patterns show that the antibody bound preferentially to rod photoreceptor cells. This observation is consistent with previous lectin histochemical findings that sialoglycans are preferentially present on the surfaces of rod photoreceptors, and in the rod-associated interphotoreceptor matrix. Sialidase in rod inner segments may function by balancing with sialyltransferase, also preferentially expressed in rod inner segments, to form sialyl residues on the termini of sugar chains in the rod-associated sialoglycoconjugates.