title: Brefeldin A distorts discoid and polarized morphological organizations of epithelial cells in culture.
abstract: Brefeldin A (BFA), an agent disorganizing organelle traffic, was used to find out the role of this traffic in the maintenance of shape and cytoskeletal organization of cultured epithelial MDCK cells. Cell shape was assessed using dispersion and elongation indices (Dunn and Brown, 1986, J Cell Sci 83: 313-340). BFA reversibly transformed discoid MDCK cells with circular actin pattern into moderately polarized cells with straight actin bundles. In other experiments the same MDCK cells were first transformed into highly polarized fibroblast-like cells by incubation with 'scatter factor' (HGF/SF) and then treated with BFA. In these conditions BFA significantly decreased the degree of polarization. It is suggested that both highly polarized and discoid morphological organizations are controlled by organelle traffic.
authors.affiliation: A.N. Belozersky Institute of Physical and Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, Russia.
authors.forename: N L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Prigozina
authors.forename: V B
authors.initials: VB
authors.lastname: Dugina
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Vasiliev
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000032:analysis; D000818:Animals; D020126:Brefeldin A; D002460:Cell Line / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D016764:Cell Polarity / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D048429:Cell Size / Q000187:drug effects; D003517:Cyclopentanes / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004285:Dogs; D004847:Epithelial Cells; D004848:Epithelium / Q000737:chemistry / Q000187:drug effects; D017228:Hepatocyte Growth Factor / Q000494:pharmacology; D007686:Kidney Tubules, Distal / Q000166:cytology*; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D014404:Tubulin / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D003517:Cyclopentanes; D014404:Tubulin; D020126:Brefeldin A; D017228:Hepatocyte Growth Factor