Peculiarities of skin glycome in progeny of hypothyroid female rats during pre- and postnatal ontogenesis according to lectin histochemistry data

The morphogenesis of the skin in the progeny of hypothyroid female rats in pre- and postnatal ontogenesis was studied using general morphology and lectin histochemistry methods. The experiment was conducted on 20 female Wistar rats weighing 180-200 g, which were divided into two groups: control (10), and experimental (10), from which were obtained 70 and 46 offsprings, respectively. Experimental hypothyroidism was induced by daily food supplementation with antithyroid drug mercazolil at the rate 5 mg/kg of animal body weight. After the second week of the experiment, females in the estrus stage were paired with males. Skin samples from the back of experimental and control groups progeny rats were taken on the embryonic day 16, and on the postnatal days 1, 10, 20 and 40. Skin samples were fixed in 4% neutral formalin and embedded in paraffin. 5-7 μm thick sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Carbohydrate determinants were detected using a set of lectin-peroxidase conjugates as follows: Con A, PNA, HPA, WGA, SNA, LABA and LTFA. Maternal hypothyroidism, alongside increased total body weight of progeny animals, induced hypodermal thickening, enhanced activity of granular cells layer and of keratinization processing. Rearrangement of lectin receptor sites included reduced reactivity of PNA, SNA and WGA, which play an important role in the formation of adhesive contacts between keratinocytes, and of DGal(β1- 3)DGalNAc and βDGal carbohydrate determinants in the sebaceous gland secretory products, which regulate proliferation and differentiation of cells of hair follicles.