Effect of native Argentine fruit extracts on the development of Xenopus mucociliary epidermis

GABRIELA C. SOMAINI; MANUEL J. AYBAR; NANCY R. VERA; CELESTE TRÍBULO

Valparaiso

Congreso; 11th Meeting of the Latin American Society for Developmental Biology (LASDB); 2024

SDB (USA), LASDB

Mucociliary epithelia consist of multiiliated cells (MCCs), ionocytes (INCs), and small secretory cells (SSCs) lining various organs in vertebrates, such as the respiratory tract. The embryonic mucociliary epidermis of Xenopus has become a very interestig model for studying this type of epithelia due to its external localizatin and similarity to the mammalian airway mucociliary epithelium. The wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway plays a key role in development. Recently, a role for this pathway in inhibitig MCCs diffrentitin in Xenopus mucociliary epidermis was identiid.The Ziziphus mistol fruit is used in northwestern Argentia in traditinal food and beverage preparatins, as well as popular medicines for liver and respiratory disorders. We conducted a series of in vivo experiments in Xenopus embryos to determine the role of natural extracts derived from Ziziphus mistol fruits as regulators of the wnt/β-catenin pathway. Our previous results demonstrated that these natural extracts act as inhibitors of this signaling pathway. The aim of this research was to evaluate the partiipatin of Ziziphus mistol aqueous extract (ZmAE) during the specifiatin of MCCs as inhibitors of the wnt/β-catenin pathway. For the experiments, the embryos were treated with ZmAE, and the wnt/β-catenin pathway was actiated using LiCl. The levels of α-tubulin, an MCCs marker, were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Embryos treated with LiCl showed a decrease in α-tubulin levels, which was rescued by ZmAE treatment. Additinally, we performed an ultrastructural analysis of Xenopus embryonic epidermis using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). LiCl-treated embryos exhibited a marked decrease in MCCs with abnormal cilia, while ZmAE treatment reversed this effct. These results highlight the potentil of Ziziphus mistol fruit extracts to be used as modulators of the wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in the context of chronic lung diseases associated with airway epithelial remodeling.