Science Inventory

Citation:

Description:

Background: It is well known that a variety of teratogens induce neural tube defects in animals; however, less is known about proteins that play a role in protecting embryos from teratogen-induced neural tube defects. Previously, our lab has shown that embryos over-expressing the 70 kDa heat shock proteins (HSP) Hspa1a and Hspa1b were partially protected from the deleterious effects of exposure to hyperthermia in vitro. Methods: In the present studies, we have used a transgenic mouse in which both of the stress-inducible HSP Hspa1a and Hspa1b were deleted by homologous recombination. Time-mated Hspa1a/a1b-/- (KO) and wildtype (WT) mice were exposed to hyperthermia in vivo on gestational day 8.5. Results: Results show that 57% of the gestational day 15 fetuses from KO litters were exencephalic, while only 19% of WT fetuses were affected. In addition, 6% of treated KO fetuses also exhibited eye defects (microphthalmia and anopthalmia), defects not observed in WT fetuses exposed to hyperthermia. Lysotracker red staining and caspase-3 enzyme activity were examined within 10 hours after exposure to hyperthermia, and significantly greater levels of apoptosis and enzyme activity were observed in KO embryos compared to WT embryos.

Purpose/Objective:

Conclusions: These results show that embryos lacking the Hspa1a and Hspa1b genes are significantly more sensitive to hyperthermia-induced neural tube and eye defects and that this increased sensitivity is correlated with increased amounts of apoptosis. Thus, these results also suggest that Hspa1a and Hspa1b play an important role in protecting embryos from hyperthermia-induced congenital defects, possibly by reducing hyperthermia-induced apoptosis.

URLs/Downloads:

Record Details:

Organization: