Cyclodextrin, a probe for studying adhesive interactions

Abstract

In this short communication, we introduce alpha-cyclodextrin as a new probe to study mechanisms of adhesive interactions. We show that this cyclic polysaccharide, that consisting of six glucosyl residues linked by alpha-1,4 bonds, was the only sugar of 22 tested that dramatically blocked a specific cellular interaction in the sea urchin embryo (p<0.001 compared with non-sugar controls). A total of 150-400 embryos were sampled for each concentration of each sugar tested. Mechanisms of cellular interactions have been studied for almost a century and they still remain poorly understood. Cyclodextrin is an exciting new tool that can be utilized for investigating these mechanisms.

Figure 1

Effects of a-cyclodextrin (0.01 M) compared with ASW on 48 hr S.purpuratus embryos (top) and L.pictus embryos (bottom). Data are plotted as mean percentages of embryos exhibiting complete archenteron (CA), unattached archenteron (UA), exogastrulation (EXO) or not viable (NV) from 3 experiments in which over 200 embryos were assessed for each species. Unpaired t-test was used to compare mean percentages of a-cyclodextrin and ASW, P < 0.001. Error bars are Standard Error of the Mean.

Figure 2

Photos of a-cyclodextrin (0.01 M) treated 48 hr L.pictus embryos (top) and 0.05M glucosamine treated 48 hr L.pictus embryos (bottom). The bottom photo is an example of all other sugar samples at all concentrations tested, and control ASW experiments where embryos were viable that generally appeared identical to the embryos in the bottom photo. Arrows in the top photo show unattached archenterons and in the bottom photo, attached archenterons. Magnification 100X.

Figure 2

Photos of a-cyclodextrin (0.01 M) treated 48 hr L.pictus embryos (top) and 0.05M glucosamine treated 48 hr L.pictus embryos (bottom). The bottom photo is an example of all other sugar samples at all concentrations tested, and control ASW experiments where embryos were viable that generally appeared identical to the embryos in the bottom photo. Arrows in the top photo show unattached archenterons and in the bottom photo, attached archenterons. Magnification 100X.