Antisera to synthetic peptides of lens MIP26K (major intrinsic polypeptide): characterization and use as site-specific probes of membrane changes in the aging human lens.

Based upon the amino acid sequence of bovine lens MIP26K obtained from cDNA cloning (Gorin, Yancey, Cline, Revel and Horwitz, 1984), two octapeptides (amino acid nos 252-259, 240-247) near the C-terminus have been synthesized. Rabbit antisera to these peptides recognize the intact MIP26K molecule from bovine, human and chick lens membrane. When compared with rabbit antisera to intact MIP26K or to its major cyanogen bromide fragment (CB-1), the antiserum to the sequence 252-259 was able to recognize age-related changes in human MIP26K not detectable by the conventional anti-MIP26K or anti-CB-1 sera.