Grimaldi Annalisa, Tettamanti Gianluca, Acquati Francesco, Bossi Elena, Guidali Maria Luisa, Banfi Serena, Monti Laura, Valvassori Roberto, de Eguileor Magda
Dipartimento di Biologia Strutturale e Funzionale, Università dell'Insubria, Varese, Italy.
Dev Dyn. 2008 Mar;237(3):659-71. doi: 10.1002/dvdy.21453.
Our study focuses on the possible involvement of the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway in the differentiation of striated muscle fibres in cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) mantle. We show here that both an hh-homolog signalling molecule and its receptor Patched (Ptc) are expressed in a specific population of myoblasts which differentiates into the radial fast fibres. To evaluate the functional significance of hh expression in developing cuttlefish, we inhibited the Hedgehog signalling pathway by means of cyclopamine treatment in cuttlefish embryos. In treated embryos, the gross anatomy was considerably compromised, displaying an extremely reduced mantle with a high degree of morphological abnormalities. TUNEL and BrdU assays showed that the absence of an hh signalling induces apoptosis and reduces the proliferation rate of muscle precursors. We therefore hypothesize a possible involvement of Hh and its receptor Ptc in the formation of striated muscle fibres in cuttlefish.
我们的研究聚焦于刺猬信号通路（Hh）在乌贼（Sepia officinalis）外套膜横纹肌纤维分化过程中可能发挥的作用。我们在此表明，一种hh同源信号分子及其受体Patched（Ptc）在特定的成肌细胞群体中表达，这些成肌细胞会分化为放射状快肌纤维。为了评估hh在发育中的乌贼体内表达的功能意义，我们通过在乌贼胚胎中使用环杷明处理来抑制刺猬信号通路。在经处理的胚胎中，大体解剖结构受到严重损害，外套膜极度缩小，伴有高度的形态异常。TUNEL和BrdU检测表明，hh信号缺失会诱导细胞凋亡并降低肌肉前体细胞的增殖速率。因此，我们推测Hh及其受体Ptc可能参与了乌贼横纹肌纤维的形成。
