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F Lachapelle

Publications and source records attributed to F Lachapelle.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Transplantations of newborn CNS fragments into the brain of shiverer mutant mice: extensive myelination by transplanted oligodendrocytes. II. Electron microscopic study.

As already demonstrated by immunohistochemistry, oligodendrocytes from newborn normal mice are able to survive, migrate and myelinate when transplanted into the newborn shiverer (shi/shi) mouse brain. The survival of the grafted cells and their interaction with the host brain were studied at different times after transplantation. Normal myelin was found in the host parenchyma basing our observation on the morphological difference between normal and shiverer myelin: the shiverer myelin deprived of major dense line appears uncompacted as compared to normal myelin. Myelin formed by transplanted oligodendrocytes was detected around the graft and, after immunohistochemical prelocalization, at considerable distance from the site of implantation. Normal and shiverer myelin were detected around axons adjacent to each other or around the same axon. These results confirm and extend at the ultrastructural level our previous data obtained by immunohistochemistry.

Animals↗

Brain gangliosides of quaking and shiverer mutants: qualitative and quantitative changes of monosialogangliosides in the quaking brain.

Ganglioside compositions in the brains of the mutant mice quaking and shiverer were compared with those of their littermate controls, C57BL/6 and C3HSWV. Neither ganglioside content nor composition of shiverer brains differed from those of the control brains. Change in the ganglioside composition of the mutant brain from that of the control was observed only in the quaking mutant brain, in which monosialoganglioside GM1 was significantly reduced and GM4 was completely absent. The structures of the gangliosides were determined by negative ion fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry, and the GM3 and GM4 gangliosides in the quaking brain were found to be altered in regard to their long-chain base and fatty acid compositions when compared to the normal C57BL/6 brain.

Animals↗

[Free and sulfo-conjugated dehydroepiandrosterone in the brain of mice with myelin biosynthesis disorders].

Dehydroepiandrosterone, either unconjugated (D) or conjugated to sulfuric acid (DS), has been identified in the brain of male Mice; DS had been previously found in Rat brain. DS amounts in posterior brain, were 0.8-2.0 ng/g in controls, and very much lower in dysmyelinic jimpy and quaking Mice of the same age. Conversely, amounts of D were increased in affected Mice, suggesting an impaired sulfoconjugation. Results may be explained by accumulation of D and DS in brain, unrelated to the endocrine system.

Animals↗

Regional distribution of myelin basic protein in the central nervous system of quaking, jimpy, and normal mice during development and aging.

Myelin basic protein (MBP) was quantified using a RIA technique in the spinal cord, cerebellum, diencephalon plus brainstem region and cerebral hemispheres of two dysmyelinating murine mutants, quaking (qk) and jimpy (jp) mice. Comparison was made with normal control values. The whole life-span has been investigated: ie, ages ranging from 0 to 26 days for the jp, O to one year for the qk, and prenatal stage to three years for the control animals. Assays in the mutants at early ages were rendered feasible by the use of marker genes, which has allowed the diagnosis of the mutation at birth, 12 days before the expression of their typical tremor phenotype. Special care was given to the period of early myelinogenesis in order to clarify the dysynchrony between the various parts of the central nervous system. In normal mice, MBP was already detected in the brain of 19-day-old embryos. During development, rapid accumulation of MBP first occurred in the spinal cord then in the diencephalon, the brainstem, the cerebellum, and finally in the cerebral hemispheres. In the 25-day-old jimpy mutant, levels of MBP were found dramatically decreased, never exceeding 6% of the normal controls in any of the areas investigated. The situation for the quaking mouse was quite different. This mutant could be investigated up to one year old. At that age, a high discrepancy was observed between the values found in the brain and in the spinal cord (respectively, 10% and 35%) compared to normal controls. In both mutants, not only were the levels of MBP decreased, but also its appearance during development was delayed. Nevertheless, in both mutants the caudo-rostral timing of myelination as assayed by MBP levels was maintained. Furthermore, the later myelination occurred, the stronger weas the deficit in MBP. Interestingly, in the quaking mutant, the specific plasticity of the spinal cord was exemplified by its ability to reduce constantly, even at an advanced age, its initial deficit of MBP.

Aging↗

Effects of drugs affecting the noradrenergic system on convulsions in the quaking mouse.

Handling-induced convulsions in the quaking mouse can be blocked by: phenobarbital, pentobarbital or phenytoin; postsynaptic alpha-adrenoceptor agonists (noradrenaline, phenylephrine, CRL 40028); presynaptic alpha-adrenoceptor blockers (yohimbine, mianserine); catecholamine liberating agent (amphetamine); noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (cocaine, imipramine, desipramine). Moreover, the protective effect of yohimbine was antagonized by clonidine, prazosin or alpha-methylparatyrosine, and the protective effect of CRL 40028 was antagonized by prazosin but not by alpha-methyltyrosine. Drugs acting by other mechanisms (pilocarpine, atropine, trihexyphenidyl, (--)-5-HTP, methysergide, pimozide, clonidine, alpha-methyl DOPA, prazosin, isoprenaline, salbutamol) did not protect against convulsions. A slight protection was obtained with high doses of apomorphine and also with (+/-)-propranolol. This effect is probably not related to blockade of beta-adrenoceptors because the same effect was obtained with (+)propranolol. In young quaking mice, where susceptibility to convulsions is low, both postsynaptic alpha-adrenoceptor blockers and presynaptic alpha-adrenoceptor antagonist lowered the convulsive threshold. Thus, this seems to constitute an interesting model for the in vivo study of substances which affect the central alpha-adrenoceptors either pre- or postsynaptically.

Animals↗

Radioautographic evidence for the protracted proliferation of glial cells in the central nervous system of jimpy mice.

Proliferation of glial cells has been studied in the central nervous system of jimpy mice and control littermates with [3H]thymidine radioautography. It was found that the proliferation of glial precursors was protracted in the 3 regions studied: spinal cord, cerebellum and corpus callosum. The difference between jimpy and littermates became obvious in each of these regions at the onset of myelination. It is concluded that the maturation of the oligodendrocyte is the target of the mutation. The protracted proliferation of glioblasts is a consequence of the absence of stable interactions with the axons.

Aging↗

Accumulation of GFA, the monomeric precursor of the gliofilaments, during development in normal mice and dysmyelinating mutants.

Astrocytic reactivity during the myelination period in the mouse was studied with immunochemical method, ie, quantitative determination of the soluble pool of the GFA protein. There is normally a maximum content at the time of early myelinogenesis in any structure; then the GFA level decreases and finally keeps constant for a long period during the adult life. This evolutive pattern is also observed in the dysmyelinating mutant quaking, with a permanent shift toward higher values especially in areas of earlier maturation. In the jimpy mutant, practically devoid of myelin, the increase of GFA occurs but does not stop until death, at 25 days postnatal. This study points out 1) the capacity of astrocytes to synthesize surprisingly high amounts of soluble GFA at periods of intense metabolic activity, and 2) the reactivity of astrocytes in relation to the degree of deficiency of the myelinating oligodendrocytes.

Animals↗

Mode of action of chemotherapy in vivo on human acute leukemia. I. Daunomycin.

The leukocytes of 16 adult patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia were studied by autoradiographic methods to elucidate the mode of action of daunomycin. It was shown that daunomycin, at clinically useful doses, exhibits a cytolytic effect on all leukemic blasts whatever their cell-cycle phase. This cytolytic action affects, however, preferentially S-phase cells. It was shown also that blasts of patients less sensitive to daunomycin or receiving a lesser dose of the drug are temporarily blocked in G(2) phase (delayed mitosis) or in G(2) phase (prolonged generation time). Finally daunomycin appeared to hamper the passage of G(2)-blocked blasts from the bone marrow to the blood, while G(2)-phase cells crossed freely.

Autoradiography↗