title: Effects of melanocyte-stimulating hormone on wild-type and white axolotl neural crest cells.
abstract: 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 N6,O2-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 x 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.
authors.affiliation: Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Dean
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Frost-Mason
mesh_terms: D000262:Adenylyl Cyclases / Q000819:agonists; D000557:Ambystoma; D000818:Animals; D003994:Bucladesine / Q000494:pharmacology; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002772:Cholera Toxin / Q000494:pharmacology; D009074:Melanocyte-Stimulating Hormones / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009432:Neural Crest / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000201:enzymology
chemical_list: D003994:Bucladesine; D009074:Melanocyte-Stimulating Hormones; D002772:Cholera Toxin; D000262:Adenylyl Cyclases