title: Skin micro-organs from several frog species secrete a repertoire of powerful antimicrobials in culture.
abstract: This work is an attempt to take advantage of the rich biodiversity that exists in Colombia in order to start a systematic analysis of antimicrobial substances that have emerged through amphibian evolution. For this purpose we have developed a technique to grow intact frog skin derived micro-organs (SMOs) in vitro in the absence of serum. We show that in SMOs, the skin glands remain intact and continue to secrete into the medium substances with potent antibacterial activity, for several days in culture. Our strategy has been to create a bank of substances secreted by amphibian skin from different species. This bank contains at present around 50 species and is of particular importance as some of the species are in danger of disappearing. We show that some of the species tested displayed very strong antibacterial activity without being toxic to somatic cell lines, even at 10-fold higher concentration.
authors: Laboratory of Human Genetics, Department of Biological Sciences, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors: Helena
authors: H
authors: Groot
authors: Carolina
authors: C
authors: Muñoz-Camargo
authors: Johanna
authors: J
authors: Moscoso
authors: Gina
authors: G
authors: Riveros
authors: Vivian
authors: V
authors: Salazar
authors: Franz
authors: F
authors: Kaston Florez
authors: Eduardo
authors: E
authors: Mitrani
mesh_terms: D029845:Amphibian Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D003105:Colombia; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D011898:Ranidae / Q000378:metabolism*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012867:Skin / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029845:Amphibian Proteins; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D012313:RNA