scholarly journals 234.Calcium involvement in glucose induced GLUT3 expression in preimplantation mouse embryos

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 234
Author(s):  
K. Gardner ◽  
M. Pantaleon ◽  
P. L. Kaye

Despite their inability to utilise glucose for energy prior to compaction (E3), mouse embryos have a requirement for at least a brief glucose exposure to permit normal development. In the absence of this glucose pulse in vitro, we and others have found that embryos cleave to form morulae but fail to form blastocysts and subsequently degenerate. These embryos do not develop the capacity to utilise glucose preferentially and are unable to adapt to their nutrient environment and utilise alternate substrates (1). This inability to utilise glucose is due to failure to express GLUT3 at compaction (2). Brief glucose exposure prior to the 8-cell stage is sufficient to permit the embryo to undergo compaction, express GLUT3 and ultimately form a blastocyst, suggesting that glucose induces metabolic differentiation of the developing embryo. In this study we have explored the role of intracellular calcium in response to glucose given its central role in pancreatic glucose induced signalling events. Zygotes were cultured in the presence and absence of glucose and treated with either calcium mobilising agents, ethanol or ionomycin at 54�h post hCG or with the intracellular calcium chelator BAPTA-AM. Embryos were fixed and assayed for GLUT3 expression individually at 96�h post hCG using confocal immunofluorescence. Release of intracellular calcium by either ethanol or ionomycin, activated GLUT3 expression in a glucose like manner (P�<�0.01) suggesting that calcium transients may be involved in glucose sensing. Moreover, buffering of calcium with the calcium chelator BAPTA-AM interfered with the ability of glucose to activate GLUT3 expression (P�<�0.05), suggesting that glucose exposure does result in calcium transients that affect GLUT3 expression. It is unclear whether these calcium transients occur as a result of influx of extracellular calcium via voltage-gated ion channels or the release of calcium from intracellular stores via inositol triphosphate-gated calcium release channels in the endoplasmic reticulum. (1) Martin and Leese (1995) Mol. Reprod. Dev. 40, 436–443. (2) Pantaleon et al. (2001) Proc 32nd Annual SRB Conference, Gold Coast, Qld. A42.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marino Maemura ◽  
Hiroaki Taketsuru ◽  
Yuki Nakajima ◽  
Ruiqi Shao ◽  
Ayaka Kakihara ◽  
...  

AbstractIn multicellular organisms, oocytes and sperm undergo fusion during fertilization and the resulting zygote gives rise to a new individual. The ability of zygotes to produce a fully formed individual from a single cell when placed in a supportive environment is known as totipotency. Given that totipotent cells are the source of all multicellular organisms, a better understanding of totipotency may have a wide-ranging impact on biology. The precise delineation of totipotent cells in mammals has remained elusive, however, although zygotes and single blastomeres of embryos at the two-cell stage have been thought to be the only totipotent cells in mice. We now show that a single blastomere of two- or four-cell mouse embryos can give rise to a fertile adult when placed in a uterus, even though blastomere isolation disturbs the transcriptome of derived embryos. Single blastomeres isolated from embryos at the eight-cell or morula stages and cultured in vitro manifested pronounced defects in the formation of epiblast and primitive endoderm by the inner cell mass and in the development of blastocysts, respectively. Our results thus indicate that totipotency of mouse zygotes extends to single blastomeres of embryos at the four-cell stage.


Development ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 601-615
Author(s):  
M. H. L. Snow

Mouse embryos were grown in vitro from the 2-cell stage to blastocysts in the presence of [3H]thymidine. Methyl-T-thymidine and thymidine-6-T(n) were used and both forms found to be lethal at concentrations above 0·1 μCi/ml. Both forms of [3H]Tdr at concentrations between 0·01 and 0·1 μCi/ml caused a highly significant (P &lt; 0·001) reduction in blastocyst cell number. The reduction in cell number, which was positively correlated with specific activity and tritium concentration, was associated with cell damage typical of radiation damage caused by tritium disintegration. Thymidine-6-T(n) also significantly reduced the number of 2-cell embryos forming blastocysts whereas methyl-T-Tdr did not. This difference in effect is assumed to be caused by contamination of one form of [3H]Tdr with a by-product of the tritiation process. A study of the cleavage stages showed that almost all the reduction in cell numbers could be accounted for by selective cell death occurring at the 16-cell stage. Cells which survive that stage cleave at a normal rate. The cells that are most susceptible to [3H]Tdr damage were found to normally contribute to the inner cell mass. The [3H]Tdr-resistant cells form the trophoblast. It is possible to grow blastocysts in [3H]Tdr such that they contain no inner cell mass but are composed entirely of trophoblast. Comparatively short (12 h) incubation with [3H]Tdr at any stage prior to the 16-cell stage will cause this damage. Possible reasons for this differential effect are discussed, and also compared with damage caused by X-irradiation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 97 (5) ◽  
pp. 429-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian C. Smith ◽  
Rene Vandenboom ◽  
A. Russell Tupling

The amount of calcium released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum in skeletal muscle rapidly declines during repeated twitch contractions. In this study, we test the hypothesis that caffeine can mitigate these contraction-induced declines in calcium release. Lumbrical muscles were isolated from male C57BL/6 mice and loaded with the calcium-sensitive indicator, AM-furaptra. Muscles were then stimulated at 8 Hz for 2.0 s in the presence or absence of 0.5 mM caffeine, at either 30 °C or 37 °C. The amplitude and area of the furaptra-based intracellular calcium transients and force produced during twitch contractions were calculated. For each of these measures, the values for twitch 16 relative to twitch 1 were higher in the presence of caffeine than in the absence of caffeine at both temperatures. We conclude that caffeine can attenuate contraction-induced diminutions of calcium release during repeated twitch contractions, thereby contributing to the inotropic effects of caffeine.


Author(s):  
Sofie Hørlyck ◽  
Changsi Cai ◽  
Hans C Helms ◽  
Martin Lauritzen ◽  
Birger Brodin

Brain capillary pericytes have been suggested to play a role in the regulation of cerebral blood-flow under physiological and pathophysiological conditions. ATP has been shown to cause constriction of capillaries under ischemic conditions and suggested to be involved in the "no-reflow" phenomenon. In order to investigate the effects of extracellular ATP on pericyte cell contraction, we studied purinergic receptor activation of cultured bovine brain capillary pericytes. We measured [Ca2+]i-responses to purinergic agonists with the fluorescent indicators fura-2 and Cal-520 and estimated contraction of pericytes as relative change in cell area, using real-time confocal imaging. Addition of ATP caused an increase in cytosolic calcium and contraction of the brain capillary pericytes, both reversible and inhibited by a purinergic receptor antagonist PPADS. Furthermore, we demonstrated that ATP-induced contraction could be eliminated by intracellular calcium-chelation with BAPTA, indicating that the contraction was mediated via purinergic P2 -type receptor-mediated [Ca2+]i-signaling. ATP stimulation induced inositol triphosphate signaling, consistent with the notion of P2Y receptor activation. Receptor profiling studies demonstrated presence of P2Y1 and P2Y2 receptors, using ATP, UTP, ADP and the subtype specific agonists MRS2365 (P2Y1) and 2-thio-UTP (P2Y2)). Addition of specific P2X agonists only caused a [Ca2+]i increase at high concentrations, attributed to activation of inositol triphosphate signaling. Our results suggest that contraction of brain capillary pericytes in vitro by activation of P2Y type purinergic receptors is caused by intracellular calcium release. This adds more mechanistic understanding to the role of pericytes in vessel constriction, and points towards P2Y receptors as potential therapeutic targets.


1992 ◽  
Vol 70 (10-11) ◽  
pp. 1097-1104 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. K. Kothary ◽  
N. D. Allen ◽  
S. C. Barton ◽  
M. L. Norris ◽  
M. A. H. Surani

In the present study, we have analysed the expression pattern of a lacZ transgene (CMZ12) in preimplantation stage mouse embryos. The transgene is expressed at the two-cell stage, where it shows cellular mosaicism due to variable expressivity. The variable gene expression indicates a partial penetrance of the transgene. The extent of variation in expression is influenced by the genetic background of the oocyte. DBA/2 and CFLP genetic backgrounds promote high expression of the transgene, while Balb/c, C57BL/6, DDK, and F1(C57BL/6 × CBA) genetic backgrounds give none or very little lacZ activity. In vitro culture of one-cell embryos to the two-cell stage induces the expression of lacZ in all strain backgrounds tested. The variation in CMZ12 expression is a transient phenomenon and does not affect later stage activity of the transgene. Nuclear transfer experiments and DNA methylation analysis suggests that a heritable modification of the transgene locus has not occurred.Key words: cellular mosaicism, lacZ transgene, mouse embryos, variable expressivity.


1976 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. S. FISER ◽  
J. W. MACPHERSON

The potential development of blastomeres isolated from 255 mouse embryos in the 2-cell stage, 283 embryos in the 4-cell stage and 184 embryos in the 8-cell stage was compared. Results indicated that 44.6, 34.9 and 14.0% of these blastomeres, respectively, were capable of forming blastocysts in vitro. Transfers of cloned embryos into synchronized females was unsuccessful.


2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
X. S. Cui ◽  
X. Y. Li ◽  
T. Kim ◽  
N.-H. Kim

Trichostatin A (TSA) is an inhibitor of histone deacetylase and is able to alter gene expression patterns by interfering with the removal of acetyl groups from histones. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of TSA treatment on the development and gene expression patterns of mouse zygotes developing in vitro. The addition of 100 nm TSA to the culture medium did not affect the cleavage of mouse embryos (TSA treatment, 148/150 (99%) v. control, 107/107 (100%)); however, embryos that were treated with TSA arrested at the 2-cell stage (145/148, 98%). We estimated the number of nuclei in control and TSA-treated embryos by propidium iodide staining, taking into account the presence of any cells with two or more nuclei. At 62–63 h post-hCG stimulation, control zygotes had developed to the 4-cell stage and exhibited one nucleus in each blastomere, indicative of normal development. In contrast, we observed tetraploid nuclei in at least one blastomere in 20.8% (11/53) of the embryos that had been treated with TSA. At 28–29 h post-hCG stimulation (metaphase of the 1-cell stage), there was no difference in the mitotic index (as determined by analyzing the microtubule configuration) in the TSA group compared to the control group. At the 2-cell stage, however, we did not observe mitotic spindles and metaphase chromatin in embryos in the TSA treatment group compared to the controls. Interestingly, when embryos were cultured in TSA-free medium from 35 h post-hCG stimulation (S- or early G2-phase of the 2-cell stage) onward, almost all of them (47/50) developed to the blastocyst stage. In contrast, when embryos were cultured in TSA-free medium from 42 h post-hCG stimulation (middle G2-phase of the 2-cell stage) onward, they did not develop to the 4-cell stage. We used Illumina microarray technology to analyze the gene expression profiles in control and TSA-treated late 2-cell-stage embryos. Applied Biosystems Expression System software was used to extract assay signals and assay signal-to-noise ratio values from the microarray images. Our data showed that 897 genes were significantly (P < 0.05; 2-sample t-test) up- or down-regulated by TSA treatment compared to controls. Analysis using the PANTHER classification system (https://panther.appliedbiosystems.com) revealed that the 575 genes that were differentially expressed in the TSA group compared to the control were classified as being associated with putative biological processes or molecular function. Overall, in terms of putative biological processes, more nucleoside, nucleotide, and nucleic acid metabolism, protein metabolism and modification, signal transduction, developmental process, and cell cycle genes were differentially expressed between the TSA and control groups. In terms of putative molecular function, more nucleic acid-binding transcription factor and transferase genes were differentially expressed between the groups. The results collectively suggest that inhibition of histone acetylation in mouse embryos affects gene expression profiles at the time of zygotic genome activation, and this subsequently affects further development.


1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Th. Rülicke ◽  
P. Autenried

Approximately 18% of cryopreserved 2-cell mouse embryos of 26 different batches showed various degrees of morphological damage after the freeze-thaw process. Normal and damaged morphology were assessed by light microscopy and the ability of an embryo to develop in vitro to a blastocyst, or to develop to term, after transfer to foster mothers. Using vital stains such as Fluorescein-diacetate (FDA) and 4',6-Diamidino-2-Phenylindole (DAPI) it was found that in approximately 82% of the cases, both of the 2 blastomeres of the cryopreserved embryos survived the freeze-thaw process; in 10% only one cell survived the process; and in 8% none survived. Normally, only intact 2-cell embryos are considered for transfer. Here it was shown that over 60% of the partially damaged embryos developed in vitro to the blastocyst stage and, of those, 26% developed to term after transfer to suitable foster mothers. Although the inner cell mass (ICM) appeared to remain smaller during culture after the transfer of partially damaged 2-cell stage embryos, no difference during gestation period was found compared with intact embryos.


Zygote ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 285-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Wilding ◽  
Marcella Marino ◽  
Vincenzo Monfrecola ◽  
Brian Dale

We have used confocal microscopy to measure calcium waves and examine the distribution of tubulin in oocytes of the ascidian Ciona intestinalis during meiosis. We show that the fertilisation calcium wave in these oocytes originates in the vegetal pole. The sperm penetration site and female meiotic apparatus are found at opposite poles of the oocyte at fertilisation, confirming that C. intestinalis sperm enter in the vegetal pole of the oocyte. Following fertilisation, ascidian oocytes are characterised by repetitive calcium waves. Meiosis I-associated waves originate at the vegetal pole of the oocyte, and travel towards the animal pole. In contrast, the calcium waves during meiosis II initiate at the oocyte equator, and cross the oocyte cytoplasm perpendicular to the point of emission of the polar body. Immunolocalisation of tubulin during meiosis II reveals that the male centrosome is also located between animal and vegetal poles prior to initiation of the meiosis II-associated calcium waves, suggesting that the male centrosome influences the origin of these calcium transients. Ascidians are also characterised by an increase in sensitivity to intracellular calcium release after fertilisation. We show that this is not simply an effect of oocyte activation. The data strongly suggest a role for the male centrosome in controlling the mechanism and localisation of post-fertilisation intracellular calcium waves.


1996 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 1027-1071 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Sutko ◽  
J. A. Airey

Complexities in calcium signaling in eukaryotic cells require diversity in the proteins involved in generating these signals. In this review, we consider the ryanodine receptor (RyR) family of intracellular calcium release channels. This includes species, tissue, and cellular distributions of the RyRs and mechanisms of activation, deactivation, and inactivation of RyR calcium release events. In addition, as first observed in nonmammalian vertebrate skeletal muscles, it is now clear that more than one RyR isoform is frequently coexpressed within many cell types. How multiple ryanodine receptor release channels are used to generate intracellular calcium transients is unknown. Therefore, a primary focus of this review is why more than one RyR is required for this purpose, particularly in a tissue, such as vertebrate fast-twitch skeletal muscles, where a relatively simple and straightforward change in calcium would appear to be required to elicit contraction. Finally, the roles of the RyR isoforms and the calcium release events they mediate in the development of embryonic skeletal muscle are considered.


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