Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M Osborn.
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Myoepithelial cells from mammary glands, the modified sweat glands of bovine muzzle, and salivary glands have been studied by electron microscopy and by immunofluorescence microscopy in frozen sections in an attempt to further characterize the type of intermediate-sized filaments present in these cells. Electron microscopy has shown that all myoepithelial cells contain extensive meshworks of intermediate-sized (7--11-nm) filaments, many of which are anchored at typical desmosomes or hemidesmosomes. The intermediate-sized filaments are also intimately associated with masses of contractile elements, identified as bundles of typical 5--6-nm microfilaments and with characteristically spaced dense bodies. This organization resembles that described for various smooth muscle cells. In immunofluorescence microscopy, using antibodies specific for the various classes of intermediate-sized filaments, the myoepithelial cells are strongly decorated by antibodies to prekeratin. They are not specifically stained by antibodies to vimentin, which stain mesenchymal cells, nor by antibodies to chick gizzard desmin, which decorate fibrils in smooth muscle Z bands and intercalated disks in skeletal and cardiac muscle of mammals. Myoepithelial cells are also strongly stained by antibodies to actin. The observations show (a) that the epithelial character, as indicated by the presence of intermediate-sized filaments of the prekeratin type, is maintained in the differentiated contractile myoepithelial cell, and (b) that desmin and desmin-containing filaments are not generally associated with musclelike cell specialization for contraction but are specific to myogenic differentiation. The data also suggest that in myoepithelial cells prekeratin filaments are arranged--and might function--in a manner similar to the desmin filaments in smooth muscle cells.
Eggs of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus were examined by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy for tubulin-containing structures at intervals from fertilization through first cleavage. The staining revealed that the monaster is made up not only of the sperm aster but also of tubulin-staining fibers originating elsewhere in the egg. The monaster does not divide directly but is broken down first before the amphiaster or interphase asters begin to form. The interphase asters reach a peak of development at the streak stage and are in turn broken down before the formation of the mitotic apparatus. The breakdown of the monaster, interphase asters, as well as the asters of the mitotic apparatus proceeds from the cell center or aster centers to the periphery of the cell and is followed by growth of new asters, also proceeding outward from the aster centers. The pattern suggests a transient wavelike movement of some condition, or factor, which favors microtubule depolymerization.
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The localization and migration of centriole duplexes have been studied in PtK2 cells by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy using specific tubulin antibodies. The study demonstrated the usefulness of the immunofluorescence technique to quantitate studies of centriole migration and concomitant events such as cytoplasmic microtubule breakdown in large populations of cells. Centriole duplex locations in normal and Colcemid-treated interphase populations have been compared with duplex locations in prophase cells. A higher percentage of duplexes were found close to the nucleus in prophase than in interphase cells, but approximately 5% of the duplexes remained in the cytoplasm far removed from the nucleus in prophase and throughout the course of duplex separation. Duplex separation occurred along a wide variety of paths and duplexes did not have to be closely juxtaposed to the nuclear envelope for separation to occur. Some duplexes separated in the cytoplasm with no detectable nuclear attachment, with spindles forming far to the side of the condensing chromosomes. The timing of duplex separation did not always coincide either with chromosome condensation or with nuclear membrane breakdown, and in a small percentage of the cells separation occurred as late as prometaphase. These data suggest that normal spindle formation can occur despite the large variability in initial and final centriole duplex location, their migration patterns, and the timing of the different events. Breakdown of cytoplasmic microtubules began in prophase and progressed until prometaphase; the last cytoplasmic microtubules disappeared soon after the loss of the nuclear membrane.
Merokeratin is an easily soluble proteolytic derivative of mature alpha-keratin. Guinea pig antibodies have been raised to merokeratin prepared from sheep wool. These antibodies decorate in immunofluorescence microscopy arrays of bundles of intermediate sized filaments present in established epithelial cell lines growing in culture. Thus, the highly helical soluble proteolytic fragments of mature alpha-keratin contains antigenic determinants shared by the cytokeratins present in non-epidermal cells, and antibodies to these keratin fragments can be used for the demonstration of at least some cytokeratin-containing structures in other cells and tissues.
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Phalloidin is a drug, which specifically binds to F-actin. Tissue culture cells were microinjected with phalloidin and the intracellular display of microfilament-associated proteins in such cells and in cytoskeletons prepared from them was followed by immunofluorescence microscopy using antibodies against actin, myosin, tropomyosin and alpha-actinin. When phalloidin concentrations of 0.2 mM were used, cells and cytoskeletons revealed in addition to the stress fibers aberrant microfilament arrangements ("islands") underneath the upper membrane. These islands contain in addition to actin all the microfilament-associated proteins. Cytockeletons were stabilized by phalloidin against the actin-depolymerization effect of 0.6 M Kl. This resistance of phalloidin-bound actin was used to localize the drug not only in the induced islands but also in the stress fibers. Phalloidin-injected cells showed the same response to cytochalasin B as normal cells and phalloidin did not interfere with ATP-induced contraction of glycerinated models. These results indicate that phalloid-in-stabilized filamentous actin can still give rise to contraction within the stress fiber system, and that F-actin bound to phalloidin may be translocated within the cell.
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Human endothelial cells prepared from unbilical cords are characterized in parallel by electron microscopy and indirect immunofluorescence microscopy using specific antibodies against different classes of intermediate-sized filaments. The strongly developed, loose bundles of intermediate-sized filaments typically found in these cells are not decorated by antibodies against prekeratin or antibodies against smooth muscle desmin. They are, however, strongly decorated by antibodies directed against murine "vimentin," i.e., the 57,000 mol wt polypeptide which is the major protein of the intermediate-sized filaments predominant in various cells of mesenchymal origin. Cytoskeletal preparations greatly enriched in intermediate-sized filaments show the enrichment of a polypeptide band comigrating with murine vimentin. This shows that the intermediate-sized filaments that are abundant in human endothelial cells are predominantly of the vimentin type and can be demonstrated by their cross-reaction with the vimentin of rodents. These data also strengthen the evidence for several subclasses of intermediate-sized filaments, which can be distinguished by immunological procedures.
The intermediate-sized filaments present in epidermal keratinocytes derived from mouse skin and in an established cell line (HEL) derived from spontaneous transformation of murine keratinocytes grown in vitro, have been examined by immunofluorescence microscopy, using antibodies directed against subunit proteins of different classes of intermediate-sized filaments, as well as by electron microscopy and gel electrophoresis of cytoskeletal preparations highly enriched in intermediate-sized filaments. The keratinocytes derived from neonatal skin, which are capable of only limited replication in vitro, show only a single type of intermediate-sized filaments, i.e., the tonofibril-like arrays of filaments containing prekeratin. HEL cells, which proliferate indefinitely in vitro, retain the tonofilament-like structures typical of differentiated epidermal cells but in addition display intermediate-sized filaments of the vimentin type, i.e., the filament system typically found in mesenchymal and mesenchyme-derived cells. We discuss the possibility that (i) the advent of vimentin-type filaments in epidermal cells in culture is related either to the transformed state or the in vitro growth conditions as such and (ii) other differentiated epithelial cells proliferating in vitro may have more than one system of intermediate-sized filaments.