Olfactomedin-like 3 (OLFML3) gene expression in baboon and human ocular tissues: cornea, lens, uvea, and retina.

Background: Olfactomedin-like is a family of polyfunctional polymeric glycoproteins. This family has at least four members. One member of this family is OLFML3, which is preferentially expressed in placenta but is also detected in other adult tissues including the liver and heart. However, its orthologous rat gene is expressed in the iris, sclera, trabecular meshwork, retina, and optic nerve.

Methods: OLFML3 messenger amplification was performed by RT-PCR from human and baboon ocular tissues. The products were cloned and sequenced.

Results: We report OLFML3 expression in human and baboon eye. The full coding DNA sequence has 1221 bp, from which an open reading frame of 406 amino acid was obtained. The baboon OLFML3 gene nucleotidic sequence has 98% and amino acidic 99% similarity with humans.

Conclusions: OLFML3 gene expression in human and baboon ocular tissues and its high similarity make the baboon a powerful model to deduce the physiological and/or metabolic function of this protein in the eye.