Parker B Antin
Publications
PMID: 3047142;PMCID: PMC2115209;Abstract:
The chicken gene encoding cardiac troponin T (cTNT) is expressed in both cardiac and skeletal muscle during early embryonic development, but is specifically repressed in skeletal muscle during fetal development. To determine if the cis-acting sequences governing transcription of a single gene in these two related cell types are the same, we have transfected promoter/upstream segments of the cTNT gene coupled to the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene into primary cultures of early embryonic cardiac and skeletal muscle cells. Using this assay system, chloramphenicol acetyltransferase activity directed by the cTNT promoter/upstream region was between two and three orders of magnitude higher in cardiac or skeletal muscle cells than in fibroblast cells, indicating that cis elements responsible for cell-specific expression reside in this region of the cTNT gene. Deletion experiments showed that a 67-nucleotide DNA segment residing between 268 and 201 nucleotides upstream of cTNT transcription initiation site is required for the cTNT promoter activity in embryonic cardiac cells. This region is not required in embryonic skeletal muscle cells because promoter construction containing only 129 upstream nucleotides is transcriptionally active in these cells. These results demonstrate that different cis-acting sequences are required for cTNT expression in early embryonic cardiac and skeletal muscle cells. Nonessential regions residing farther upstream, on the other hand, affected the level of expression of these minimum regions in a similar manner in both cell types. The data from these experiments indicate, therefore, that transcription of the cTNT promoter in early embryonic cardiac and skeletal muscle cells is governed both by common and divergent regulatory elements in cis and in trans.
The forkhead transcription factor gene E1 (FOXE1) plays an important role in regulation of thyroid development, palate formation and hair morphogenesis in mammals. However, avian FOXE1 genes have not been characterized and as such, codon evolution of FOXE1 orthologs in a broader evolutionary context of mammals and birds is not known.
Islet replacement is a promising therapy for treating diabetes mellitus, but the supply of donor tissue for transplantation is limited. To overcome this limitation, endocrine tissue can be expanded, but this requires an understanding of normal developmental processes that regulate islet formation. In this study, we compare pancreas development in sheep and human, and provide evidence that an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is involved in beta-cell differentiation and islet formation. Transcription factors know to regulate pancreas formation, pancreatic duodenal homeobox factor 1, neurogenin 3, NKX2-2, and NKX6-1, which were expressed in the appropriate spatial and temporal pattern to coordinate pancreatic bud outgrowth and direct endocrine cell specification in sheep. Immunofluorescence staining of the developing pancreas was used to co-localize insulin and epithelial proteins (cytokeratin, E-cadherin, and beta-catenin) or insulin and a mesenchymal protein (vimentin). In sheep, individual beta-cells become insulin-positive in the progenitor epithelium, then lose epithelial characteristics, and migrate out of the epithelial layer to form islets. As beta-cells exit the epithelial progenitor cell layer, they acquire mesenchymal characteristics, shown by their acquisition of vimentin. In situ hybridization expression analysis of the SNAIL family members of transcriptional repressors (SNAIL1, -2, and -3; listed as SNAI1, -2, -3 in the HUGO Database) showed that each of the SNAIL genes was expressed in the ductal epithelium during development, and SNAIL-1 and -2 were co-expressed with insulin. Our findings provide strong evidence that the movement of beta-cells from the pancreatic ductal epithelium involves an EMT.