Cytochalasin H (CH) brought about cellular disaggregation resulting into arrest of development in the embryos of the frog, Microhyla ornata. The effects were dependent on the dose of CH, duration of the treatment as well as on developmental stage of the embryo at the beginning of the treatment. The embryos were protected to some extent if the vitelline membranes were left intact. The reversibility of CH-action, after transfer of treated embryos to CH-free medium, was dependent on the extent of cellular disaggregation brought about by CH and on the presence or absence of an intact vitelline membrane.
Biological effects of cytochalasin H (CH), a newly isolated mould metabolite, have been found to bring about disaggregation of embryonic cells and to inhibit cytokinesis. Disaggregation is known to be a phenomenon related to the cell surface. (The cells are held together by a mucopolysaccharide glycoprotein complex.) In the present work the fact that the mucopolysaccharide glycoprotein surface coat gets affected by CH treatment is confirmed by electron microscopy with the help of Lanthanum, a specific marker, which gets selectively absorbed to the cell surface material and renders it electron dense. The ultra-structural observations indicated the reduction of the cell surface material in treated embryos as compared to the controls. The reappearance of lanthanum-bound cell surface material in the recovered embryos was also observed. However, the exact mechanism of the action of CH on the cell surface remains to be clarified.
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