title: Microtransplantation of acetylcholine receptors from normal or denervated rat skeletal muscles to frog oocytes.
abstract: Cell membranes, carrying neurotransmitter receptors and ion channels, can be 'microtransplanted' into frog oocytes. This technique allows a direct functional characterization of the original membrane proteins, together with any associated molecules they may have, still embedded in their natural lipid environment. This approach has been previously demonstrated to be very useful to study neurotransmitter receptors and ion channels contained in cell membranes isolated from human brains. Here, we examined the possibility of using the microtransplantation method to study acetylcholine receptors from normal and denervated rat skeletal muscles. We found that the muscle membranes, carrying their fetal or adult acetylcholine receptor isoforms, could be efficiently microtransplanted to the oocyte membrane, making the oocytes become sensitive to acetylcholine. These results show that oocytes injected with skeletal muscle membranes efficiently incorporate functional acetylcholine receptors, thus making the microtransplantation approach a valuable tool to further investigate receptors and ion channels of human muscle diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via A. Fleming 22, I-34127 Trieste, Italy. abernareggi@units.it
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bernareggi
authors.forename: Jorge Mauricio
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Reyes-Ruiz
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lorenzon
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ruzzier
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Miledi
mesh_terms: D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D015220:Calcium Channels / Q000378:metabolism; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004594:Electrophysiology; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000187:drug effects / Q000294:innervation / Q000378:metabolism*; D009865:Oocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic / Q000378:metabolism*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014982:Xenopus laevis
chemical_list: D015220:Calcium Channels; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic; D000109:Acetylcholine