• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.483-489
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• 1995

Retinoic acid was found to block membrane fusion of chick embryonic myoblasts in culture. This effed was dosedependent and could he reversed upon removal of the agent from the culture medium. Furthermore, the retinoic acid-mediated inhibition of membrane fusion was observed with the fusion competent cells but not with the cells that had already been committed for fusion, indicating that the effect of RA is differentiation stage-specific. However, retinoic acid showed little or no effect on the ability of the cells to form bipolar shape and to align along their axes. Neither the cell proliferation nor accumulation of muscle specific proteins, such as creatine kinase and tropomyosin, was impaired significantly. On the other hand, retinoic acid blocked the differentiation time~ependent loss of fibronectin, whose process is prerequisite for myoblast fusion. These results suggest that retinoic add acts as a specific inhibitor of membrane fusion by preventing the loss of fibronectin from the differentiating myoblasts.