Identification of striatin, a desmosomal protein, in the canine corneal epithelium

Striatin is a scaffolding protein expressed in brain and cardiac tissues. In the heart, striatin has been localized to the region of the cardiac desmosome. A causal mutation within the gene encoding for this scaffolding protein has been described as the etiology for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, a disease of the cardiac desmosome, in a canine model. Hemidesmosomes are cell adhesion complexes located within the cornea where they anchor the corneal epithelium to the stroma at the basement membrane and participate in cell-signaling processes. Traditional cell adhesion desmosomes are also known to link the corneal epithelial cells together. We hypothesized that striatin may be found in the cornea localized to regions of either hemidesmosomes and/or desmosomes. Immunohistochemical evaluation was performed to evaluate for striatin labeling in normal canine cornea. Striatin was localized to the cytoplasmic region of corneal epithelial cells. The role of striatin in corneal disease warrants investigation.