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R Mosselmans

Publications and source records attributed to R Mosselmans.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Galactose-specific adsorptive endocytosis: an ultrastructural qualitative and quantitative study in cultured rat hepatocytes.

Using galactosylated bovine serum albumin coupled to colloidal gold (galBSA-CG) as a probe, the receptor-mediated endocytosis pathway has been analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively at the ultrastructural level in cultured rat hepatocytes. The results showed that galBSA-CG was specifically recognized by the asialoglycoprotein receptor of the hepatocytes, thus confirming biochemical findings. The probe was preferentially bound in coated pits of the cell surface. When bound elsewhere on the plasma membrane, it apparently moved towards coated regions. In both cases, it was then internalized via coated vesicles. The galBSA-CG passed through pleiomorphic tubular structures and in endosomes, a pool of smooth-surfaced vesicles of various size (50-350 nm), before transiently accumulating in multivesicular bodies. The latter then fused with lysosomes where the glycoproteinic moiety of the probe was degraded, as judged by the flocculated aspect of the accumulated gold particles. About 10% of the internalized ligand was recycled back to the cell surface via secreting vesicles containing lipoprotein-like particles without having apparently passed through lysosomes, which suggests the existence of a pre-lysosomal sorting mechanism of the endocytosed material. Functional recovery of the morphologically restored biliary polarity of hepatocytes in culture was indicated by the fact that galBSA-CG finally appeared in the reconstituted bile canaliculi.

Animals↗

Membrane recycling after endocytosis of cationized ferritin in cultured rat hepatocytes.

Cultured hepatocytes from adult rat livers were incubated for various durations (2 to 120 min) with cationized ferritin (CF) to trace the fate of surface membrane. CF was taken up by endocytosis in clathrin-coated vesicles and was found within 15-60 min in endosomes and mainly in multivesicular bodies (MVB). Lysosomes exhibited but scanty labeling, and the marker was not found in Golgi cisternae even at the longer incubation time. Two main observations result from our ultrastructural study: smooth vesicles seem to pinch off from the MVB to move toward the cell surface; moreover, smooth or coated vesicles fuse with secretion vesicles and recycle back to the plasma membrane. The present data thus demonstrate in cultured hepatocytes, the existence of intracellular pathways of plasma membrane that short-cut the Golgi cisternae and the lysosomal compartment.

Animals↗

Invasiveness of hyperplastic nodule cells from diethylnitrosamine-treated rat liver.

Administration of diethylnitrosamine p.o. to female Sprague-Dawley rats induces hepatocellular lesions antecedent to hepatocarcinoma (altered foci and hyperplastic nodules). We have tested hepatocytes from hyperplastic nodules for their invasiveness in vitro, which is a marker for malignancy. The hyperplastic nodule cells are compared with control liver cells and hepatocarcinoma cells. Control liver tissue and the hepatocarcinoma are collected as fragments taken directly from the rat liver. Nodules, on the other hand, isolated by collagenase perfusion of the liver, are collected on a filter. The fragments of normal liver, the nodules, and the hepatocarcinomas were brought in contact with precultured 9-day-old embryonic chick heart fragments for attachment to each other to form confronting cultures. After attachment, the confronting cultures are incubated at 37 degrees on a gyratory shaker for 24 hr to 14 days. Hepatocytes from the nodules show progressive invasion into the precultured heart fragments in the same way as the hepatocarcinoma cells after 3 to 14 days in vitro. The control hepatocytes from the liver fragments showed no invasion. We conclude from these observations that the cells of the nodules must be considered as malignant altered hepatocytes, for they show progressive invasiveness in vitro.

Animals↗

Human placental oxytocinase and its relationship to pregnancy plasma oxytocinase.

Plasma "oxytocinase of pregnancy" and three placental "oxytocinase" fractions from human placental extracts were compared. On the basis of acrylamide-agarose chromatography, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, substrate specificity, heat liability and relative insensitiveness to L-methionine, it is concluded that placental enzyme activities, present in the second acrylamide-agarose peak, are identical with the plasma "pregnancy oxytocinase" and are to be regarded as its source. The hypothesis of a transplacental passage of placental peak II oxytocinase in the blood compartment of the mother seems well supported. Heat treatment of the placental extracts uncovered a minor activity behaving like Oya's microsomal oxytocinase, which is totally unlike the plasma oxytocinase and plays no part in the increased oxytocinase activity of human pregnancy plasma. A hitherto undescribed enzyme activity shares with the pregnancy oxytocinase its specificity towards L-leucyl-beta-naphthylamide and di-S-S-L-cysteinyl-beta-naphthylamide, its heat lability and realtive insensitiveness to L-methionine. However, this activity is carried by a protein of much lower molecular weight as judged by acrylamide-agarose chromatography, which shows only a single activity band on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

Acid Phosphatase↗

Separation in distinct subpopulations by elutriation of liver cells following exposure of rats to N-nitrosomorpholine.

N-Nitrosomorpholine, administered with drinking water to SD rats at the daily dose of 2.4 mg/kg for 7 weeks, induces persisting changes in the hepatocytes as shown by electron microscopy and cytochemistry. In situ, the hepatocytes exhibit a heterogeneous reaction for glucose-6-phosphatase activity. Cells of large diameter, frequently deficient in this enzyme, contain a well-developed rough and/or smooth endoplasmic reticulum. Adult rat hepatocytes from control and N-nitrosomorpholine-treated rats were isolated by enzymatic perfusion. Isolated cell populations in both experimental models were composed of a few contaminating sinusoidal cells; small, intermediate, and large hepatocytes; and doublets or triplets of undissociated cells. Five distinct hepatic subpopulations were separated by elutraition or counterflow centrifugation and analyzed by morphological, morphometric, and cytophotometric methods. Fraction I is composed of small (16 to 18 micrometers) diploid hepatocytes; Fractions II and III consist of homogeneous populations of tetraploid cells (mean diameters, 20.5 and 22.4 micrometers); Fraction IV is enriched with large octoploid cells whose mean diameters reach 25.2 micrometers; and Fraction V contains large cells and cell aggregates. The counterflow centrifugation shows the higher proportion of hypertrophied and polyploid hepatocytes, obtained after carcinogen treatment, in the elutriated Fractions IV and V. The structural integrity of hepatocytes is not affected by the process of elutriation. Large hepatocytes, up to 30 micrometers in diameter, exhibit an abundant smooth endoplasmic reticulum, frequently disposed at the periphery of the cell where it forms a network of anastomosing tubules. Moreover, some of these cells present well-developed rough endoplasmic cisternae, closely associated in large fields. Under the scanning electron microscope, elutriated hepatocytes from control rats show numerous regularly distributed microvilli covering the entire cell surface, whereas hypertrophic hepatocytes from N-nitrosomorpholine-treated rats offer heterogeneous cell surfaces, characterized by the presence of patches of short, closely packed microvilli.

Animals↗

Adult rat hepatocytes in primary monolayer culture. Ultrastructural characteristics of intercellular contacts and cell membrane differentiations.

Primary monolayer cultures were obtained in 60-mm petri dishes by incubating 3 X 10(6) isolated hepatocytes at 37 degrees C in Dulbecco's medium supplemented with 17% fetal calf serum. The ultrastructure of monolayer cells was examined after various incubation periods. Within 4 h of plating, the isolated spherical cells adhere to the plastic surface, establish their first contacts by numerous intertwined microvilli, and form new hemidesmosomes. After 12 h of culture, wide branched trabeculae of flattened polyhedral cells extend in all directions. Finally, after 24 h of culture, bile canaliculi are reconstituted, and a biliary polarity is recovered: the Golgi elements, which are scattered throughout the cytoplasm in the isolated cells, are reassembled in front of the newly formed bile canalculi, symmetrically in the adjacent cells; lysosomes are concentrated in that region, and microtubules reappear. Concomitantly, plasma membrane differentiations, namely desmosomes and tight junctions, develop. Tight junctions sealing the bile ducts constitute a barrier to the passage of ruthenium red and horseradish peroxidase. De novo formation of these junctions was studied by the freeze-etching technique: 10-nm particles compose a network of anastomosed linear arrays in the vicinity of the bile canaliculi; in the next step of differentiation, the particles fuse, form short ridge segments and finally continuous branched smooth strands, characteristic of the mature tight junction.

Cell Adhesion↗

Isolation and subfractionation on ficoll gradients of adult rat hepatocytes. Size, morphology, and biochemical characteristics of cell fractions.

The recirculating perfusion of adult rat liver with a Ca-++-free Hanks' solution produces a release of the adhesiveness of cells and a cleaving of the desmosomes. The addition of collagenase and hyaluronidase to the perfusion medium leads to complete dissociation of the liver tissue into a mixture of isolated cells and cell cords in which the hepatocytes remain connected with specific junctional differentiations, namely the gap and tight junctions. Individual cells are released by submitting the suspension of cell trabeculae to a gentle rolling. The gap junctions are ruptured at least in one of the two adjacent cells and remain generally attached to the other cell taking with them a small portion of cytoplasm. This technique of isolation of hepatocytes yields about 60-65% of the parenchymal cells contained in a liver; endothelial cells and other cells of the connective tissue are not recovered. The ultrastructural preservation of the isolated hepatocytes is excellent and the glucose-6-phosphatase activity, confined to the endoplasmic reticulum, appears unaltered in most cells. Protein, DNA and RNA recovery in the preparations of isolated hepatocytes is satisfactory, amounting to 70% of that found in liver homogenate; glycogen, the most labile component examined, is partly lost or degraded during the manipulations. Cell diameters measured by different methods confirm the preservation of the original volume of the in situ hepatocytes and the presence of more than one type of parenchymal cell. By submitting this heterogeneous cell population to an isopycnic density gradient centrifugation, two types of hepatocytes can be distinguished: the light hepatocytes, with a mean diameter of 20.5 mum and a mean density of 1.10, are characterized by an extended smooth-walled endoplasmic reticulum entrapping dispersed alpha-glycogen particles; the heavy hepatocytes, with a mean diameter of 19.0 mum and a mean density of 1.14, present a relatively reduced compartment of smooth endoplasmic reticulum, but large accumulations of glycogen. It is suggested that the cell fraction of low density is enriched in centrolobular cells and the high density fraction in perilobular hepatocytes.

Animals↗

[In hospital and at home parenteral nutrition with a single unit (author's transl)].

Parenteral administration of a nutritive mixture in a disposable bag prepared in a specialized center reduces the incidence of complications and allows for ambulatory treatment at home. The authors use a nutritive mixture of glucose solutions, amino-acids and lipids in a single bag. Turbidity studies, morphometric evaluation, the macroscopic aspect of the emulsions as well as bacteriological studies have demonstrated the stability of the solution for 5 days when kept at 4 degrees C. Forty-nine cancer patients benefited by this therapeutic modality. Four patients developed an infection in conjunction with the advent of temporary personnel in specialized unit. One patient developed cholestatic jaundice. All 5 recovered. No other patient suffered from a complication due to this technic of parenteral nutrition. One patient has been treated for 3 months of which 1 month at home. Another one is still on total parenteral nutrition 9 months later with 8 months at home without any complication.

Ambulatory Care↗