Influence of maternal rats’ hypothyroidism on morpho-functional peculiarities and glycome of progeny skin

Abstract

We studied the influence of maternal hypothyroidism on progeny skin morphogenesis by means of histological, histochemical and lectin–histochemical methods. Hypothyroid conditions in rats were achieved by daily food supplementation with antithyroid drug Mercazolil. The experiment was conducted on 10 control and 10 hypothyroid rats, which delivered 70 and 46 offsprings, respectively. We discovered that maternal hypothyroidism induces the accumulation of mast cells (MCs) in the skin of progeny on the 1st, 10th and 20th postnatal days, with decrease of these cell’s count returning to control level on 40th postnatal day. These results indicate that offsprings developing under conditions of maternal hypothyroidism are a risk group for changes in immune status and the occurrence of allergic reactions. The stratum corneum of epidermis, its lipid barrier as well as pilosebaceous units, in both control and experimental group animals, at the early stages of postnatal ontogenesis are enriched with carbohydrate determinants of αDMan, βDGal, βDGal(1–3)DGalNAc, αLFuc, αDGalNAc, αDGlcNAc, Neu5Ac. Galanthus nivalis agglutinin (GNA) is a selective histochemical marker of MCs, while Lactarius torminosus fungus agglutinin (LTFA) is a selective label of Langerhans cells. Maternal hypothyroidism resulted in reduction of lectin binding with the structural components of progeny skin and its derivatives. We speculate that alterations in glycoconjugate processing and degradation sequences have an impact on the cell signaling, formation of adhesive contacts, cellular proliferation and differentiation. The lectin set we used clearly demonstrated specific labeling of cellular subpopulations, monitoring glycoconjugates processing and degradation under physiological and pathological conditions in all skin components.