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Relationship between Teratogenic Effects and Tissue Binding Pattern of Concanavalin A in Rat Embryos
Author(s) -
NISHIDA Atsuyuki,
KOBAYASHI Takashi,
ASANO Yuzo,
ARIYUKI Fumio,
NAKAYAMA Yoshio
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
congenital anomalies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1741-4520
pISSN - 0914-3505
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-4520.1994.tb00794.x
Subject(s) - neurulation , neural tube , embryo , neuroepithelial cell , concanavalin a , neural crest , andrology , biology , extracellular , neural plate , anatomy , embryogenesis , endocrinology , medicine , chemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , embryonic stem cell , gastrulation , biochemistry , in vitro , gene
This study was conducted to examine the effects of concanavalin A (Con A) on rat neurulation. Con A was injected intravenously to pregnant rats at a single dose of 5, 10, or 20 mg/kg between gestational days (GD) 7.5 and 10.0, and the embryos were macroscopically examined on GD 11.5. Con A induced a high mortality rate, the treatment with 10 and 20 mg/kg on GD 9.5 was completely lethal. Con A caused a high incidence of neural tube defects (NTD), the incidence in the 10 mg/kg on GD 8.0 and 8.5 groups and in the 20 mg/kg on GD 8.0, 8.5 and 9.0 groups being significantly higher than that in the control group. Histological evaluation revealed that Con A inhibited neural tube expansion and altered neural crest cell shape. In the Con A‐treated embryos, the stratified structure of the neuroepithelium was irregular and its extracellular space was expanded. In rat embryos from intact dams, the distribution of receptors for Con A was demonstrated histochemically on the cell surfaces around neurulation sites between GD 8.5 and 10.5, but not on GD 7.5. These findings indicate that Con A bound around the neurulation sites in rat embryos may disturb the cell‐cell communication required to form the neural tube, resulting in NTD.