Acrylamide exposure preferentially impairs axonal transport of glycoproteins in myelinated axons.

The right L5 dorsal root ganglion of adult rats exposed to acrylamide (40 mg/kg body weight/day for nine consecutive days) was injected with either [3H]methionine or [3H]glucosamine. After allowing incorporation into macromolecules and axonal transport to proceed for 5 hr, the distribution of radioactivity in cross sections and longitudinal sections of sciatic nerve was determined by autoradiography. Control and treated animals showed no difference in distribution of label within the sciatic nerve with respect to rapidly transported proteins labelled with [3H]methionine. In control animals the distribution of rapidly transported glycoproteins labelled with [3H]glucosamine was similar to that found for [3H]methionine-labelled proteins. In contrast, acrylamide-exposed rats had a very different distribution of labelled glycoproteins; there was a marked paucity of label in the myelinated axons. We interpret this result as indicating that acrylamide preferentially inhibits glycosylation or axonal transport of glycoproteins in neurons bearing myelinated axons.