RHODAMINE-B ACCUMULATION AND MXR PROTEIN EXPRESSION IN MUSSEL BLOOD-CELLS - EFFECTS OF EXPOSURE TO VINCRISTINE

Mussel hemocytes accumulate rhodamine B within their lysosomal compart ment. This intracellular retention, detected and quantified by compute rised confocal microscopy, is enhanced by the presence of verapamil. S tudy of 2 different populations showed alteration in rhodamine B reten tion and simultaneous differential expression levels of proteins immun orelated to the multidrug resistance (MDR) transporter in relation to their environment. Chronic exposure of animals to the Vinca antitumor alkaloid vincristine causes the hemocytes to accumulate less rhodamine B, to be more sensitive to verapamil and to express more MDR-related proteins. These data add consistency to previous results on multixenob iotic resistance in mussels.