E. Dupin et al., Endothelin 3 induces the reversion of melanocytes to glia through a neuralcrest-derived glial-melanscytic progenitor, P NAS US, 97(14), 2000, pp. 7882-7887
Citations number
36
Categorie Soggetti
Multidisciplinary
Journal title
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Functional signaling of endothelin 3 (ET3) and its receptor B (ETRB) has be
en shown to be required for the development of neural crest (NC)-derived pi
gment cells in mouse, but the precise role of ET3 is not completely underst
ood. Using the avian embryo as a model, we previously reported that ET3 pro
motes the survival and proliferation of unipotent melanocyte and bipotent g
lia-melanocyte precursors in trunk NC cultures. Here we investigated whethe
r, at later stages, embryonic pigment cells respond to ET3. Such a possibil
ity is supported by the previous finding that, in vivo, avian melanocytes e
xpress endothelin receptor B2 (ETRB2) during migration and after their diff
erentiation in the skin. We found that in vitro ET3 exerts a dose-dependent
stimulation of proliferation and melanogenesis in NC cells that had homed
to the epidermis of embryonic quail dorsal skin. Moreover, in clonal cultur
es of skin-derived pigment cells, ET3 induces rapid cell divisions of clono
genic melanocytes that generate a mixed progeny of melanocytes and cells de
void of pigment granules and expressing glial markers in more than 40% of t
he colonies. It can therefore be concluded that ET3 is strongly mitogenic t
o embryonic pigment cells and able to alter their differentiation program,
leading them to recapitulate the glial-melanocyte bipotentiality of their N
C ancestors.