Chuai, Manli

Lee, Kenneth Ka Ho

Lin, Zhuangling

Liu, Meng

Wang, Guang

Wu, Yushi

Yang, Xuesong

Zhang, Jing

Zhang, Ping

Excess alcohol consumption during pregnancy could lead to fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). However, the molecular mechanism leading to craniofacial abnormality, a feature of FAS, is still poorly understood. The cranial neural crest cells (NCCs) contribute to the formation of the craniofacial bones. Therefore, NCCs exposed to ethanol was investigated - using chick embryos and in vitro explant culture as experimental models. We demonstrated that exposure to 2% ethanol induced craniofacial defects, which includes parietal defect, in the developing chick fetus. Immunofluorescent staining revealed that ethanol treatment downregulated Ap-2ɑ, Pax7 and HNK-1 expressions by cranial NCCs. Using double-immunofluorescent stainings for Ap-2ɑ/pHIS3 and Ap-2ɑ/c-Caspase3, we showed that ethanol treatment inhibited cranial NCC proliferation and increased NCC apoptosis, respectively. Moreover, ethanol treatment of the dorsal neuroepithelium increased Laminin, N-Cadherin and Cadherin 6B expressions while Cadherin 7 expression was repressed. In situ hybridization also revealed that ethanol treatment up-regulated Cadherin 6B expression but down-regulated slug, Msx1, FoxD3 and BMP4 expressions. In summary, our experimental results demonstrated that ethanol treatment interferes with the production of cranial NCCs by affecting the proliferation and apoptosis of these cells. In addition, ethanol affected the delamination, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and cell migration of cranial NCCs, which may have contributed to the etiology of the craniofacial defects.</p

University of Dundee Online Publications

Alcohol exposure induces chick craniofacial bone defects by negatively affecting cranial neural crest development

Ping Zhang

Guang Wang

Zhuangling Lin

Yushi Wu

Jing Zhang

Meng Liu

Kenneth Ka Ho Lee

Manli Chuai

Xuesong Yang

Crossref

Toxicology Letters

English

http://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/ws/files/18615261/Alcohol_exposure_induces_chick_craniofacial_bone_defects_by_negatively_affecting_cranial_neural_crest_development.pdf

Alcohol exposure induces chick craniofacial bone defects by negatively affecting cranial neural crest development

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of Dundee Online Publications

Crossref

University of Dundee Online Publications