First published online June 11, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 2091-2103 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.003186
Specific endocytosis and degradation of naked DNA in the endocardial cells of cod (Gadus morhua L.)
Tore Seternes*,
Tom C. Tonheim,
Marie Løvoll,
Jarl Bøgwald and
Roy A. Dalmo
Department of Marine Biotechnology, The Norwegian College of Fishery
Science, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway

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Fig. 1. Time course of the appearance of radioactivity in Atlantic cod tissues
after intramuscular administration of trace amounts of
125I-fluoresceinpDNA (0.51 µg
kg1 body mass). The results are expressed as means + s.e.m.
of five fish per time-point.
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Fig. 2. Time course of the appearance of radioactivity in Atlantic cod tissues
after intravenous administration with trace amounts of
125I-fluoresceinpDNA (0.51 µg
kg1 body mass). The results are expressed as means + s.e.m.
of five fish per time-point.
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Fig. 3. Stability of R70pRomiLuc in Atlantic cod blood after intravenous
administration (A) and in vitro in whole blood (B). Supercoiled (SC)
and open circular (OC) topoform were reduced to linear (L) topoform and
degradation products, both in vitro and in vivo. M,
molecular marker 1 kb plus (Invitrogen); N, negative control (blood without
R70pRomiLuc); S, standard (R70pRomiLuc). The negative control demonstrates
that there is no detectable endogenous pDNA in the blood.
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Fig. 4. Southern blot analysis of tissues 48 h after intramuscular administration
of native pDNA (1 mg kg1 body mass). SC, supercoiled
topoform; OC, open-circular topoform,; L, linear topoform. All topoforms of
pDNA (R70pRomiLuc) were detectable in all the investigated tissues, but
degradation products were only visible in samples from the injection site
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Fig. 5. Fluorescence micrograph of atrium (A) and endocardium (B) of cod heart 24 h
after intravenous injection of rhodaminepDNA. The fluorescence can be
seen in discrete vesicles evenly distributed throughout the cytoplasm of the
endocardial cells.
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Fig. 6. Fluorescence micrograph of atrial endocardial endothelial cells (A) and cod
head kidney leukocytes (B) cultured on glass coverslip and incubated with
rhodaminepDNA for 2 h. All cells in the monolayer cultures accumulated
the pDNA. Note that fluorescence is confined to discrete vesicles which are
probably endocytic vesicles.
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Fig. 7. Kinetics of endocytosis of 125I-fluoresceinpDNA in
cultured cod atrial endocardial endothelial cells at 12°C (A) and head
kidney leukocytes at 6°C (B). Monolayer cultures of aEEC or head kidney
leukocytes in 2 cm2 wells were incubated with trace amounts of
125I-fluoresceinpDNA (approximately 2x104
c.p.m.; 20 ng). The results are presented as the cell-associated percentage of
the total added radioactivity and are the mean of three independent
experiments (aEEC). The result from the head kidney leucocyte study are the
mean of cells from eight different fish.
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Fig. 8. Specificity of endocytosis of 125I-fluoresceinpDNA in
cultured cod atrial endocardial endothelial cells. Monolayer cultures were
incubated for 2 h at 12°C with trace amounts of labelled ligand
(approximately 2x104 c.p.m.; 20 ng) alone (control) or
together with excess amounts of unlabelled macromolecules (100 µg
ml1). The following macromolecules were used: plasmid DNA
(pDNA), thymus DNA (ThDNA), formaldehyde-treated serum albumin (FSA), fucoidan
and mannan. The results are presented as a percentage of the control value and
are mean + s.e.m. of three independent experiments.
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Fig. 9. Southern blot analysis of degradation of pDNA in cultures cod atrial
endocardial endothelial cells (aEEC). Monolayer cultures were incubated with
10 µg native pDNA and cells were solubilised after 1, 4, 24, 48 h. SC,
super coiled topoform; OC, open-circular topoform; L, linear topoform.
Open-circular and linear topoforms of pDNA (R70pRomiLuc) were detectable after
1 h. After 24 h, no intact pDNA was detected in the cells.
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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2007