The Effect of Tunicamycin on Embryonic and Newborn Murine Spleen Tissues
No Thumbnail Available
Date
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Tunicamycin is an antibiotic that widely used in cell biology for its ability to inhibit N-linked glycosylation of asparagine residues on proteins and to induce endoplasmic reticulum stress. In the present study, the effects of tunicamycin on murine splenic tissues at 17th embryonic day and 1st and 3rd postnatal days were evaluated with three structural and physiological parameters: 1) alterations in glycosaminoglycan molecules, 2) apoptosis and 3) alterations in laminin molecules. It was shown that splenic microenvironments of control groups contain carboxylated glycosaminoglycans, but their content slightly decreased in all tunicamycin treated groups by alcian blue-periodic acid-Schiff method. On the other hand, there was an increase in the interstitial space among the cells of tunicamycin treated groups. In addition, it was shown by immunoblotting analyses that expression levels of laminin molecules were decreased by tunicamycin tratment in developing spleen tissues. In order to determine apoptotic effects of tunicamycin, TUNEL assay was performed and it was found that the number of apoptotic cells in developing spleen was strongly increased with tunicamycin treatments. These results suggest that, during the spleen development, the alterations of glycosaminoglycan contents in the extracellular matrix and the glycosylation status of extracellular glycoproteins (e. g. laminins) that mediate cell-extracellular matrix interactions are very important factors that seal the fate of cell physiology and morphogenesis.