Melanophore signaling : regulation and application

Sammanfattning: Melanophores are pigment-containing cells responsible for quick physiological color changes in lower vertebrates due to redistribution of melanosomes, pigment granules. We have studied melanophores from African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis. Classically, melanosomes can be stimulated to aggregate in the cell center by the hormone melatonin via a process involving activation of the inhibitory Gi/o protein and inhibition of adenylate cyclase/cAMP/protein kinase A pathway. In addition, tyrosine phosphorylations have been shown to be crucial for aggregation. In this thesis, we demonstrate that mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) are activated and phosphoinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K) are involved in melatonininduced aggregation. Inhibition of MAPK kinase or PI3-K inhibits MAPK activation, tyrosine phosphorylation of a 280-kDa protein and aggregation. Further, PI3-K inhibition is less dramatic in fish Labrus melanophores. Together with findings that phosphodiesterase (PDE) 4 and/or PDE2 are involved in keeping the aggregated state in Xenopus, we suggest that active PI3-K via MAPK stimulates PDE, thus lowering cAMP. We also use latrunculin A to induce aggregation via disruption of actin filaments. Kinetic studies indicate that melatonin and latrunculin share final downstream target, possibly inactivate myosin-V leading to melanosome aggregation. As biosensor application, a new computer screen assisted technique suitable for bioassays is demonstrated using melanophores to monitor kinetic responses of melanosome movement and blood plasma sample detection of the asthma drug and ß2 adrenergic agonist formoterol. We also used melanophores to examine the efficacy of enantiomers of formoterol. We confirm that (R;R)-formoterol is more potent than (S;S)-formoterol, in guinea pig tracheal ring preparations, cultured melanophores, and radioligand binding on COS-7 cells, but demonstrate and calculate that (S;S)-formoterol has more efficacy than previously described. Characterization of melanophores are important for biosensor applications, i e to understand mechanisms of drugs, and will probably also increase the knowledge of cell signaling in other cell systems.