No abstract

Retinoic acid, an active metabolite of vitamin A, plays essential signaling roles in mammalian embryogenesis. Nevertheless, it has long been recognized that overexposure to vitamin A or retinoic acid causes widespread teratogenesis in rodents as well as humans. Although it has a short half-life, exposure to high levels of retinoic acid can disrupt development of yet-to-be formed organs, including the metanephros, the embryonic organ which normally differentiates into the mature kidney. Paradoxically, it is known that either an excess or a deficiency of retinoic acid results in similar malformations in some organs, including the mammalian kidney. Accordingly, we hypothesized that excess retinoic acid is teratogenic by inducing a longer lasting, local retinoic acid deficiency. This idea was tested in an established in vivo mouse model in which exposure to excess retinoic acid well before metanephric rudiments exist leads to failure of kidney formation several days later. Results showed that teratogen exposure was followed by decreased levels of Raldh transcripts encoding retinoic acid-synthesizing enzymes and increased levels of Cyp26a1 and Cyp26b1 mRNAs encoding enzymes that catabolize retinoic acid. Concomitantly, there was significant reduction in retinoic acid levels in whole embryos and kidney rudiments. Restoration of retinoic acid levels by maternal supplementation with low doses of retinoic acid following the teratogenic insult rescued metanephric kidney development and abrogated several extrarenal developmental defects. This previously undescribed and unsuspected mechanism provides insight into the molecular pathway of retinoic acid-induced teratogenesis.

The pseudomalignant nature of the placenta prompted us to search for tumor suppressor gene hypermethylation, a phenomenon widely reported in cancer, in the human placenta. Nine tumor suppressor genes were studied. Hypermethylation of the Ras association domain family 1 A (RASSF1A) gene was found in human placentas from all three trimesters of pregnancy but was absent in other fetal tissues. Hypermethylation of Rassf1 was similarly observed in placentas from the rhesus monkey but not the mouse.

The tail bud comprises the caudal extremity of the vertebrate embryo, containing a pool of pluripotent mesenchymal stem cells that gives rise to almost all the tissues of the sacro-caudal region. Treatment of pregnant mice with 100 mg/kg all-trans retinoic acid at 9.5 days post coitum induces severe truncation of the body axis, providing a model system for studying the mechanisms underlying development of caudal agenesis. In the present study, we find that retinoic acid treatment causes extensive apoptosis of tail bud cells 24 h after treatment. Once the apoptotic cells have been removed, the remaining mesenchymal cells differentiate into an extensive network of ectopic tubules, radially arranged around the notochord. These tubules express Pax-3 and Pax-6 in a regionally-restricted pattern that closely resembles expression in the definitive neural tube. Neurofilament-positive neurons subsequently grow out from the ectopic tubules. Thus, the tail bud cells remaining after retinoic acid-induced apoptosis appear to adopt a neural fate. Wnt-3a, a gene that has been shown to be essential for tail bud formation, is specifically down-regulated in the tail bud of retinoic acid-treated embryos, as early as 2 h after retinoic acid treatment and Wnt-3a transcripts become undetectable by 10 h. In contrast, Wnt-5a and RAR-gamma are still detectable in the tail bud at that time. Extensive cell death also occurs in the tail bud of embryos homozygous for the vestigial tail mutation, in which there is a marked reduction in Wnt-3a expression. These embryos go on to develop multiple neural tubes in their truncated caudal region. These results suggest that retinoic acid induces down-regulation of Wnt-3a which may play an important role in the pathogenesis of axial truncation, involving induction of widespread apoptosis, followed by an alteration of tail bud cell fate to form multiple ectopic neural tubes.

A study of neuroepithelial morphogenesis in the mouse embryo has identified three modes of neural tube formation that occur consecutively as neurulation progresses along the spinal region. The three modes of neurulation differ in the extent to which the neuroepithelium exhibits formation of "hinge points', i.e. localised bending owing to reduction in apical surface area. In Mode 1, bending occurs only in the neuroepithelium overlying the notochord, creating a median hinge point. The neural folds remain straight along both apical and basal surfaces, resulting in a neural tube with a slitshaped lumen. In Mode 2, the neuroepithelium forms paired dorsolateral hinge points, as well as a median hinge point, whereas the remaining portions of the neuroepithelium do not bend. This produces a neural tube with a diamond-shaped lumen. In Mode 3 neurulation, the entire neuroepithelium exhibits bending, so that the cells specific hinge points are not discernible; the resulting neural tube has a circular lumen. The three modes of neurulation are present in all three strains of mice studied: C57BL/6, CBA/Ca and curly tail, a mutant predisposed to neural tube defects. However, curly tail embryos exhibit a delay in transition from Mode 2 to Mode 3, preceding faulty closure of the posterior neuropore. This heterogeneity of neurulation morphogenesis in the mouse embryo indicates that the underlying mechanisms may vary along the body axis. Specifically, we suggest that Mode 1 neurulation is driven largely by forces generated extrinsic to the neuroepithelium, in adjacent tissues, whereas Mode 3 neurulation is dependent primarily on forces generated intrinsic to the neuroepithelium. Down the body axis, there is a gradual decrease in the area of ectoderm involved in neural induction and, as neurulation reaches lower spinal levels, the newly induced neural plate exhibits marked indentation from the time of its first appearance. The transition from primary neurulation (neural folding of Mode 3 type) to secondary neurulation (neural tube formation by cavitation) appears to be a smooth continuation of this trend, with loss of contact between the newly induced neuroepithelium and the outside of the embryo.