Defective transport of thymidine by cultured cells resistant to 5-bromodeoxyuridine

Somite unit chronometry to analyze teratogen phase specificity in the paraxial mesoderm

Phase specificity, the temporal and tissue restriction of teratogen-induced defects during embryonic -development, is a poorly understood but common property of teratogens, an important source of human birth defects. Somite counting and somite units are novel chronometric tools used here to identify stages of paraxial mesoderm development that are sensitive to pulse-chase exposure (2 to >16 h) to 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU). In all cases, it was the presomitic mesoderm (PSM) that was sensitive to BrdU induced segmentation anomalies. At high concentration (1.0 × 10(-2) M BrdU), PSM presegment stages ss-IV and earlier were irreversibly inhibited from completing segmentation. At low concentration (2.6 × 10(-6) M), BrdU induced periodic focal defects that predominantly trace back to PSM presegments between ss-V and ss-IX. Phase specificity is characteristic of both types of segmentation anomalies. Focal segmentation defects are phase-specific because they result from disruption of 2-3 presegments in the PSM while adjacent -rostral and caudal presegments are (apparently) unaffected. Irreversible inhibition of segmentation is also phase-specific because only PSM presegments ss-IV or earlier were affected while older segments (ss-III to ss-I) were able to complete segmentation. The presegments predominantly affected have not yet passed the determination front, the point at which the segmentation clock establishes somite rostro-caudal -polarity. Somite unit chronometry provides a means to identify specific PSM presegment stages that are susceptible to induced segmentation defects and the biological processes that underlie that vulnerability.

Postnatal phencyclidine administration selectively reduces adult cortical parvalbumin-containing interneurons

Transient postnatal NMDA receptor blockade by phencyclidine (PCP), ketamine, or MK-801 induces developmental neuroapoptosis and adult behavioral deficits, which resemble abnormal human behaviors typically present in schizophrenia. This study tested the hypothesis that PCP-induced developmental apoptosis causes a specific deficit of GABAergic interneurons containing parvalbumin (PV), calretinin (CR), or calbindin (CB). Young adult (PND56) rats that were given a single dose of PCP (10 mg/kg) on PND7 exhibited no densitometric change of either CR or CB neurons in any brain region studied, but demonstrated a selective deficit of PV-containing neurons in the superficial layers (II-IV) of the primary somatosensory (S1), motor (M), and retrosplenial cortices, but not in the striatum (CPu) or hippocampus. Further, CR and CB neurons, which were expressed at the time of PCP administration, showed no colocalization with cellular markers of apoptosis (terminal dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) of broken DNA or cleaved caspase-3), indicating that CR- and CB-containing neurons were protected from the toxic effect of PCP and survived into adulthood. This suggests that the deletion of PV neurons occurred during development, but cleaved caspase-3 showed no colocalization with BrdU, a specific marker of S-phase proliferation. These data suggest that the loss of PV-containing neurons was not due to an effect of PCP on proliferating neurons, but rather an effect on post-mitotic neurons. The developmental dependence and neuronal specificity of this effect of PCP provides further evidence that this model may be valuable in exploring the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Protocols for studying adult neurogenesis: insights and recent developments

The first evidence that neurogenesis occurs in the adult brain was reported in rodents in the early 1960s, using [(3)H]-thymidine autoradiography. In the 1980s and 90s, the advent of new techniques and protocols for studying cell proliferation in situ, and particularly bromodeoxyuridine labeling, helped to confirm that neurogenesis occurs in the adult brain and neural stem cells reside in the adult CNS, including in humans. Bromodeoxyuridine labeling is currently the method most commonly used for studying neurogenesis in the adult brain. However, this procedure is not without limitations, and controversies. In this article, I will review recent protocols for studying adult neurogenesis, particularly new protocols for studying cell kinetics and cell proliferative history, using halopyrimidines. I will review these techniques, and discuss their implications for the field of adult neurogenesis.

Adult neurogenesis produces a large pool of new granule cells in the dentate gyrus

Knowing the rate of addition of new granule cells to the adult dentate gyrus is critical to understanding the function of adult neurogenesis. Despite the large number of studies of neurogenesis in the adult dentate gyrus, basic questions about the magnitude of this phenomenon have never been addressed. The S-phase marker bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) has been extensively used in recent studies of adult neurogenesis, but it has been carefully tested only in the embryonic brain. Here, we show that a high dose of BrdU (300 mg/kg) is a specific, quantitative, and nontoxic marker of dividing cells in the adult rat dentate gyrus, whereas lower doses label only a fraction of the S-phase cells. By using this high dose of BrdU along with a second S-phase marker, [(3)H]thymidine, we found that young adult rats have 9,400 dividing cells proliferating with a cell cycle time of 25 hours, which would generate 9,000 new cells each day, or more than 250,000 per month. Within 5-12 days of BrdU injection, a substantial pool of immature granule neurons, 50% of all BrdU-labeled cells in the dentate gyrus, could be identified with neuron-specific antibodies TuJ1 and TUC-4. This number of new granule neurons generated each month is 6% of the total size of the granule cell population and 30-60% of the size of the afferent and efferent populations (West et al. [1991] Anat Rec 231:482-497; Mulders et al. [1997] J Comp Neurol 385:83-94). The large number of the adult-generated granule cells supports the idea that these new neurons play an important role in hippocampal function.

Elimination of nonspecific radioactivity from [76Br]bromide in PET study with [76Br]bromodeoxyuridine

[76Br]Bromodeoxyuridine ([76Br]BrdU) might allow a determination of proliferation in vivo using positron emission tomography (PET), but only with consideration of organ nonspecific radioactivity constituted by [76Br]bromide. A first study assessed the potential of diuretics to eliminate [76Br]bromide. [76Br]Bromide was injected in the vein of rats and different diuretic combinations were given. Urine was collected and radioactivity measured. Torasemide plus sodium chloride gave better 76Br elimination than the other diuretics. In a second experiment, rats were given [76Br]BrdU. After the radioactivity injection, the rats of the treatment group were given torasemide plus NaCl. At 44 h after the radioactivity injection, the radioactivity concentration and the fraction incorporated into DNA were measured in different organs. Using diuretics, the elimination of [76Br]bromide was increased. The radioactivity decreased 30-50% in most of the organs but the highest radioactivity uptake was found in the organs with more active DNA synthesis. This method may facilitate the use of [76Br]BrdU as a tracer for DNA synthesis using PET.

Membrane transport and the antineoplastic action of nucleoside analogues

This article summarizes recent studies characterizing nucleoside transport in mammalian cells and discusses evidence for a role of membrane transport in the pharmacologic action of nucleoside analogues. Some of these studies have also addressed the controversy concerning the multiplicity in transport routes. It seems clear that erythrocytes and, perhaps, some other mammalian cells possess a single, broadly specific system for transporting nucleosides. However, substantial evidence from valid studies discriminating between transport and intracellular metabolism suggests that at least some mammalian cells, including some tumor cells, possess more than a single system. Evidence now exists for a determining role of membrane transport of nucleoside analogues in their cytotoxicity and, in the case of one pyrimidine nucleoside (AraC), in therapeutic responsiveness in leukemic patients. There are also numerous examples of transport-related resistance to nucleoside analogues. Included in this article are the results of studies from the authors' laboratory pertaining to the therapeutic activity of the purine nucleoside, FAraA, in murine tumor models. These studies provide evidence for a determining role of both membrane transport and intracellular phosphorylation in the selective antitumor action of this agent against murine leukemia. Substantially increased transport inward of FAraA occurs at pharmacologically achievable concentrations of this agent in tumor cells as compared to drug-limiting, normal proliferative epithelium of the small intestine. The basis for this differential appears to be the kinetic duality of FAraA and adenosine transport inward found in tumor cells, but not in proliferative intestinal epithelial cells. Tumor cells have highly saturable (low influx Km) and poorly saturable (high influx Km) systems for adenosine transport, both of which are shared by FAraA. In contrast, proliferative epithelial cells have only a poorly saturable system for these substrates. If a similar kinetic duality of nucleoside transport is found in other tumor cells certain implications arise concerning the significance of the duality to neoplastic transformation.

Differential sensitivity of RSVts (temperature-sensitive Rous-sarcoma virus)-infected rat kidney cells to nucleoside antibiotics at permissive and non-permissive temperatures

Among a variety of anti-tumour agents tested, oxanosine and 5-azacytidine were found to be significantly more effective in inhibiting growth of rat kidney cells infected with a temperature-sensitive mutant of Rous sarcoma virus at a permissive temperature (33 degrees C) than at a non-permissive temperature (39 degrees C). These two nucleoside antibiotics were antagonistic to each other in cytotoxicity. They seem to share the same carrier-mediated membrane-transport system, because dipyridamole, a potent inhibitor of nucleoside transport, protected cells from the cytotoxicity of both drugs. Thymidine transport, which is twice as fast in cells at 33 degrees C as at 39 degrees C, was competitively inhibited by both drugs. Thus the differential toxicity of oxanosine and 5-azacytidine at the two temperatures is thought to be due to their increased transport via the thymidine-transport system, which is somehow under the influence of the active src-gene product.

On the functional symmetry of nucleoside transport in mammalian cells

The transport of uridine and thymidine has been examined in HeLa cells, in Novikoff rat hepatoma cells and in human erythrocytes, with the purpose of comparing influx, efflux and isotopic exchange at chemical equilibrium. The results support the following conclusions: (i) In all three cell types influx and efflux are comparable; (ii) HeLa and Novikoff cells show no trans-effect, while erythrocytes show a 5-fold trans-stimulation; (iii) a single kinetic entity accounts for nucleoside transport in HeLa and Novikoff cells - no parallel routes of permeation with Km less than 40 microM were detected. For the cultured cells, the flux data conform to the kinetic model of a single, carrier-mediated transport system symmetrical with respect to direction, and with equal mobilities of substrate-loaded and empty carrier.