Studies On Deer Antler Morphogenesis And Influences Imposed By Bioelectricity On It

Organ morphogenesis is the process of organ development and morphology maintaining. Organ morphogenesis information mainly contains two aspects: 1) position information; 2) blueprint information. Due to lacking the research technologies and animal models, research of the organ morphogenesis progresses slowly, especially in mammals. In recent years, researches on the lower animals, which can regenerate some parts of their bodies, have found that “bioelectricity encodes morphogenesis;” “morphogenesis information consists of bioelectrical signals.” The findings provide theoretical basis for the organ morphogenesis study in mammals. However, deer antler is a unique mammalian organ which can fully grow back annually. So deer antler is a perfect organ morphogenesis model in mammals and especially can be used to explore whether the mammalian organ morphogenesis is encoded by the bioelectricity. Based on the researches, we know the antlerogenic periosteum(AP) stores the position information of deer antler morphogenesis. But current experimental data cannot indicate the storage position of blueprint information of deer antler morphogenesis.Five experiments, which different treatments were used on APs, were carried out and results showed: 1) The left-right polarity of deer antlers polarity didn’t change when that of APs was reversed; 2) The Species-specific antlers still formed if AP centers were frozen by liquid nitrogen; 3) If one side of AP were overlaid to another side, the first antler morphogenesis was influenced; 4) several years passing after the surgery was operated, ectopic antlers appeared similar shapes every year; 5) If the APs were cultured in vitro for a certain time, the AP tissues were still alive but the morphogenesis information was lost. In the aspect of bioelectricity effect/influence on deer antlers morphogenesis, several experiments were designed, considering the key role of sodion in bioelectricity and the effect of intracellular sodium concentration on organ regeneration(the research findings of lower animals). Firstly, Coro Na was used to stain the intracellular sodium of AP cells, the pedicle periosteum(PP) cells and the facial periosteum(FP) cells respectively. The results showed intracellular sodium concentration was different in above three kinds of cells: AP cells > PP cells > FP cells. Secondly, ten Na V genes were detected, which had been discovered in mammals, at the transcriptional level for AP cells, PP cells and FP cells. The research indicated that Na V1.1 gene specifically transcripts in AP and that another candidate gene-Na V1.5 was found. The androgen can strictly control the deer antler morphogenesis. The application of anti-androgen drugs has proved that the testosterone can inhibit the growth of “epimorphic antlers”. However, when the testosterone was added into the culture solution, it had no effect on the intracellular sodium concentration of AP cells, PP cells and FP cells in vitro. When chemical drugs, such as ivermectin, MS-222, concanamycin A and SCH-28080, which can influence the membrane potential of cells, were used for APs causing depolarization or hyperpolarization of AP tissue, the results showed that the development of the first antlers was inhibited.Conclusions: 1) AP stores the blueprint information of the deer antler morphogenesis, of which, the anterior-posterior polarity information is stored in the fixed regions, but the left-right polarity information is not done; moreover, the information which control generation of deer antlers has the physical attributes; 2) The capacity of APs and PPs, which can generate and regenerate antlers respectively, is possibly correlated with the high concentration of intracellular sodium; 3) The testosterone can control the deer antler morphogenesis in vivo, but can not directly influence the intracellular sodium concentration of AP cells and PP cells in vitro; 4) A specific polarization state of AP is critical to antler morphogenesis.