Effects of Melanocyte-Stimulating Hormone on Wild-Type and White Axolotl Neural Crest Cells

• Published in: Biochemical and biophysical research communications Vol. 210; no. 2; pp. 239 - 245
• Main Authors: Dean, A.D., Frostmason, S.K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 16.05.1995
• Subjects: Adenylyl Cyclases - agonists; Ambystoma; Animals; Bucladesine - pharmacology; Cell Differentiation - drug effects; Cells, Cultured; Cholera Toxin - pharmacology; Melanocyte-Stimulating Hormones - pharmacology; Neural Crest - cytology; Neural Crest - drug effects; Neural Crest - enzymology
• ISSN: 0006-291X; 1090-2104
• DOI: 10.1006/bbrc.1995.1652

The goals of the current research were twofold: to study the effects of melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH) on undifferentiated axolotl ( Ambystoma mexicanum ) neural crest cells and to determine whether wild-type or white mutant axolotl neural crest cells respond differently to MSH or to either of two agonists of the MSH signal transduction pathway (cholera toxin or N 6,O 2-dibutyryl adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (dbcAMP). We found that MSH induces melanophore differentiation in axolotl neural crest cells in a dose-dependent manner; however, white, but not wild-type, neural crest cells are inhibited by the highest concentration of MSH (6 × 10 −6 M) tested. The effects of cholera toxin and dbcAMP indicate that the differentiation of melanophores from white neural crest cells may be more cAMP sensitive than wild-type neural crest cells. These results suggest that MSH is likely to play a regulatory role in the initial pigment pattern formation of wild-type and white axolotls.