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[cAMP mediates the morphological change of cultured olfactory ensheathing cells induced by serum.] [Article in Chinese]

WANG Ying, HUANG Zhi-Hui*

Institute of Hypoxia Medicine, Department of Function Experiments; School of Laboratory Medicine and Life Science, Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou 325035, China

Abstract

Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) are a unique type of glia with common properties of astrocyte and Schwann cells. Cultured OECs have two morphological phenotypes, astrocyte-like OECs and Schwann cell-like OECs. Reversible changes have been found between these two morphological phenotypes. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the regulation of these reversible changes is still unknown. The aim of this paper is to establish a method for the morphology plasticity of cultured OECs, and investigate the underlying mechanism. Using the primary culture of OECs and immunocytochemistry, the morphology of OECs was observed under serum, serum free media or dB-cAMP drug treatment. Statistical analysis was performed to test differences among the percentages of OEC subtypes under these conditions. The results showed that under serum free media, (95.2±3.7)% of OECs showed Schwann cell-like morphology, and (4.8±3.7)% of OECs showed astrocyte-like morphology; however, under 10% serum media, (42.5±10.4)% of OECs exhibited Schwann cell-like morphology, and (57.5±10.4)% of OECs exhibited astrocyte-like morphology. When media was changed back to serum free media for 24 h, (94.8±5.0)% of OECs showed Schwann cell-like morphology, and (5.2±5.0)% of OECs showed astrocyte-like morphology. Furthermore, culture condition with or without serum did not affect the expression of OEC cell marker, p-75 and S-100. Finally, dB-cAMP, an analog of cAMP, through inhibiting the formation of F-actin stress fibers and focal adhesion, induced the morphology switch from astrocyte-like to Schwann cell-like morphology under serum condition, promoted the branches and the growth of processes. These results suggest that serum induces the morphology plasticity of cultured OECs, which is mediated by cytoplasmic cAMP level through regulating the formation of F-actin stress fibers and focal adhesion.

Key words: olfactory ensheathing cells; morphology plasticity; cAMP; serum

Received: 2010-11-08  Accepted: 2010-12-21

Corresponding author: 黄智慧  E-mail: hzhzju021@163.com

Citing This Article:

WANG Ying, HUANG Zhi-Hui. [cAMP mediates the morphological change of cultured olfactory ensheathing cells induced by serum.] [Article in Chinese]. Acta Physiol Sin 2011; 63 (1): 31-38 (in Chinese with English abstract).