ARTICLE

ENDOCYTOSIS IN CHANG LIVER CELLS

Roger Wagner ¹, Murray Rosenberg ¹, and Richard Estensen ¹

¹ From the Department of Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota 55101, and the Department of Pathology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455.

Dr. Wagner's present address is the Department of Anatomy, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510

The addition of 0.08 M sucrose to a culture medium containing Chang-strain human liver cells causes intense cytoplasmic vacuolation. Electron microscopy of these cells grown inferritin, time-lapse cinematography, and radioautography reveal that the vacuoles arise by endocytosis and that the sucrose is taken into the cell and localized in the vacuoles. Tracer studies demonstrate that sucrose-³H provides a marker for quantitation of endocytosis and that it neither induces nor stimulates endocytosis. Electron micrographs of vacuolated liver cells show microfilaments in close proximity to the inside of the plasma membrane, in the pseudopodia, and to the cytoplasmic side of the membrane surrounding endocytosis vacuoles. Cytochalasin B (CB), a mold metabolite that inhibits various types of cell motility, has a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on the uptake of sucrose-³H by these cells. This inhibition is accompanied by a cessation of the movement of ruffles and pseudopodia on the surface of the cells and the formation of blebs which arise from the cell's surface. These morphological changes are quickly reversible upon removal of CB. Alterations in the appearance and location of microfilaments are also observed in CB-treated cells.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Dibas, A., Mia, A., Yorio, T. (2000). Microfilament Network Is Needed for the Endocytosis of Water Channels and Not for Apical Membrane Insertion Upon Vasopressin Action. Exp. Biol. Med. 223: 203-209 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Geli, M., Riezman, H (1998). Endocytic internalization in yeast and animal cells: similar and different. J. Cell Sci. 111: 1031-1037 [Abstract]  
• Zigmond, S. H., Hirsch, J. G. (1972). Cytochalasin B: Inhibition of D-2-Deoxyglucose Transport into Leukocytes and Fibroblasts. Science 176: 1432-1434 [Abstract]  

Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents