Clusterin (17. Skin )

Elastotic material of sun-damaged skin (solar elastosis) revealed a strong staining for clusterin. Because of the striking co-localization of clusterin with abnormal elastic material, the interaction of clusterin with elastin in vitro was investigated. A chaperone assay was established in which elastin was denatured by UV irradiation in the absence or presence of clusterin. This assay demonstrated that clusterin exerted a chaperone-like activity and effectively inhibited UV-induced aggregation of elastin. The interaction of both proteins was further analyzed by electron microscopy, size exclusion chromatography, and mass spectrometry, in which clusterin was found in a stable complex with elastin after UV exposure ^Ref .