Differential distribution of vesicular carriers during differentiation and synapse formation

Coated and noncoated vesicles participate in cellular protein transport. Both acetylcholine receptors (AChR) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) are transported via coated vesicles, some of which accumulate beneath the neuromuscular synapse where AChRs cluster. To investigate the mechanisms by which these proteins are transported during postsynaptic remodeling, we purified coated vesicles from the bovine brain via column chromatography (Sephacryl S-1000) and raised monoclonal antibodies to epitopes of the vesicular membranes enriched in AChE. We assayed for AChE (coated vesicle enriched), hexosaminidase (lysosomal contaminants), NADH cytochrome C reductase (mitochondrial containing), and protein and demonstrated electron microscopically using negative staining that the vesicular fraction contained 95% pure coated vesicles. We then injected coated vesicle fractions and the fractions from which the coat was removed intraperitoneally into mice and obtained three monoclonal antibodies: C-33, C-172, and F-22. On immunoblots of purified vesicles and cultured skeletal muscle, mAb C-33 stained a 180 Kd band and mAb C-172 stained a 100 kd band. MAb F-22 stained 50 kd and 55 kd bands and was not characterized further. Immunofluorescent microscopy with C-33 and C-172 revealed punctate fluorescence whose distribution depends upon the stage of myotube development. Four days after plating, myotubes showed punctate fluorescence throughout the myotube, whereas those stained 8 days after plating showed a punctate perinuclear distribution. Myotubes innervated by ciliary neurons show punctate fluorescence limited to the nuclear periphery and most concentrated around nuclei which line up beneath neuronal processes. This differential vesicular distribution, observed during myotube differentiation and innervation, suggests that these vesicles participate in vesicular membrane traffic.