Meeting Abstract

P3.81  Jan. 6  Pharmacological Study of the Control of the Lateral Ciliated Gill Epithelium by the Cerebral Ganglion in Mytilus edulis (Bivalvia) and the Neurotoxic Effects of Manganese CRAWFORD, Alisa*; CARROLL, Margaret A.; CATAPANE, Edward J.; Medgar Evers College; Medgar Evers College; Medgar Evers College catapane@mec.cuny.edu

The function of the cerebral ganglion of Mytilus edulis was investigated for its role in the control of lateral ciliary activity. The lateral cilia are known to be dually innervated by serotonergic and dopaminergic neurons situated in the visceral ganglion and this innervation was hypothesized to originated from neurons situated in the cerebral ganglion. The present study sought to investigate this. Ciliary beating rates were directly measured by stroboscopic microscopy of gill preparations which had the ipsilateral cerebral and visceral ganglia attached. Superfusion of the cerebral ganglion with serotonin increased ciliary beating rates. This response was antagonized by pretreating with methysergide. Superfusion with dopamine decreased beating rates and this was antagonized by ergonovine. Acute treatment of M. edulis with 1 mM and 10 mM of manganese, a neurotoxin which induces Parkinson�s Disease in humans, reduced the cilio-inhibition caused by dopamine, which is in agreement with the method of action of manganese, while similarly maintained control animals were not affected. This study demonstrates that the reciprocal serotonergic-dopaminergic innervation of the lateral gill ciliated cells originates in the cerebral ganglion of the animal and that this preparation is useful as a model to study manganese neurotoxcity and the pharmacology of drugs affecting it and biogenic amines. This work was supported by grants 0516061071 of the CSTEP Program of the NYS Dept. of Education and 678760036 of PSC/CUNY.