Effects of deuterium oxide on cell growth and vesicle speed in RBL-2H3 cells

Roshni S Kalkur; Andrew C Ballast; Ashley R Triplett; Kathrin Spendier

doi:10.7717/peerj.553

Effects of deuterium oxide on cell growth and vesicle speed in RBL-2H3 cells

PeerJ. 2014 Sep 2:2:e553. doi: 10.7717/peerj.553. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Roshni S Kalkur^#¹, Andrew C Ballast^#^{1

2}, Ashley R Triplett¹, Kathrin Spendier^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ BioFrontiers Center, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO, USA.
² Department of Physics and Energy Science, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

For the first time we show the effects of deuterium oxide on cell growth and vesicle transport in rat basophilic leukemia (RBL-2H3) cells. RBL-2H3 cells cultured with 15 moles/L deuterium showed decreased cell growth which was attributed to cells not doubling their DNA content. Experimental observations also showed an increase in vesicle speed for cells cultured in deuterium oxide. This increase in vesicle speed was not observed in deuterium oxide cultures treated with a microtubule-destabilizing drug, suggesting that deuterium oxide affects microtubule-dependent vesicle transport.

Keywords: Deuterium oxide; Flow cytometry; Microtubule-dependent vesicle transport; RBL-2H3 cells; Single-particle tracking; TIRF microscopy.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs BioFrontiers Center. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.