On the molecular composition and physico-chemical properties of the pseudo-exfoliation material

The protein tracer peroxidase has been found to be excluded from pseudoexfoliation (PE) material. But after the treatment of the PE material with cetylpyridinium-chloride, peroxidase was found to penetrate into the material. This observation seems to support the concept that the PE material is a gel of proteoglycans, from which peroxidase is excluded by an excluded volume effect. Microperoxidase was found to penetrate into the superficial parts of the (untreated) PE material, and to be regularly distributed according to two different patterns: 1) along the PE fibrils, and 2) along lines in the interfibrillar matrix; lines which can 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 is 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.