Figure 1.

Clathrin-mediated internalization is impaired in ethanol-treated cells. A, WIF-B cells were treated in the absence (a, c) or presence (b, d) of ethanol (EtOH) and labeled for Tf-R (a, b) or pIgA-R (c, d). Asterisks are marking selected BCs. B, WIF-B cells were treated as described in A. Random fields were visualized by epifluorescence and digitized. From micrographs, the average pixel intensity of each marker at selected regions of interest placed at the apical or basolateral membrane (for pIgA-R) or at the intracellular population and basolateral membrane (for Tf-R) of the same WIF-B cell was measured. The averaged background pixel intensity was subtracted from each value and the ratio of apical to basolateral or intracellular to basolateral fluorescence intensity was determined. In all cases, control ratios were set to 100%. Values are expressed as the mean ±SEM. Measurements were done on at least three independent experiments. * P < 0.0005, ** P < 0.03 C, Cells were treated in the absence (a) or presence (b) of ethanol (EtOH). Live cells were continuously labeled with anti-Tf-R antibodies for 30 min in the continued absence or presence ethanol. Cells were fixed, permeabilized and labeled with secondary antibodies to detect the trafficked (tr) antibody-antigen complexes. Bar = 10 μm