Expression of the Homeobox Genes OTX2 and OTX1 in the Early Developing Human Brain

In rodents, the Otx2 gene is expressed in the diencephalon, mesencephalon, and cerebellum and is crucial for the development of these brain regions. Together with Otx1, Otx2 is known to cooperate with other genes to develop the caudal forebrain and, further, Otx1 is also involved in differentiation of young neurons of the deeper cortical layers. We have studied the spatial and temporal expression of the two homeobox genes OTX2 and OTX1 in human fetal brains from 7 to 14 weeks postconception by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. OTX2 was expressed in the diencephalon, mesencephalon, and choroid plexus, with a minor expression in the basal telencephalon. The expression of OTX2 in the hippocampal anlage was strong, with no expression in the adjacent neocortex. Contrarily, the OTX1 expression was predominantly located in the proliferative zones of the neocortex. At later stages, the OTX2 protein was found in the subcommissural organ, pineal gland, and cerebellum. The early expression of OTX2 and OTX1 in proliferative cell layers of the human fetal brain supports the concept that these homeobox genes are important in neuronal cell development and differentiation: OTX1 primarily in the neocortex, and OTX2 in the archicortex, diencephalon, rostral brain stem, and cerebellum. (J Histochem Cytochem 58:669–678, 2010)     

植物同源异型基因及同源异型盒基因的研究进展

植物同源异型基因及同源异型盒基因是涉及植物个体发育调节的两类重要转录因子编码基因.近10年来的研究表明,这两类基因及其产物的结构与功能具有明显的差异.深入研究这两类基因的结构与功能对揭示植物的发育机制具有重要意义.     

Three Dynamin-Encoding Genes Are Differentially Expressed in Developing Rat Brain

Abstract: Dynamin proteins are members of a recently described family of GTPases involved in receptor-mediated processes. To date, three different dynamin-encoding genes have been identified in mammalian tissues. Dynamin I is expressed only in neurons, whereas dynamin II is ubiquitously expressed. A third isoform, dynamin III, was originally isolated from a rat testis cDNA library and shown to be testis-specific. However, here we report the cloning and characterization of dynamin III from brain and lung, demonstrating a more extended pattern of expression for this isoform. In addition, we have investigated the temporal pattern of expression of these three genes during brain development. We find that both dynamin I and dynamin III mRNA levels are up-regulated during embryogenesis, whereas dynamin II mRNA levels remain unchanged. From these results, we conclude that dynamin III is not a testis-specific isoform and, furthermore, that rat brain expresses three different dynamin-encoding genes that are differentially regulated during development. Therefore, this large isoform diversity of dynamin proteins in brain predicts a significant complexity in the understanding of dynamin-based processes in this tissue.     

Lox6, a leech Dfd ortholog, is expressed in the central nervous system and in peripheral sensory structures

 Sequence analysis of a newly isolated Hirudo medicinalis cDNA containing an Antennapedia (Antp)-class homeobox suggests that the corresponding gene, Lox6, is an ortholog of the Drosophila Deformed (Dfd) gene. In situ hybridization of whole-mounted preparations shows that the major sites of Lox6 expression during embryogenesis are the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral sensory system. Lox6 mRNA can be detected in a subset of neurons in each ganglion from the subesophageal ganglion (RG2) to the most posterior ganglion, with the highest level of expression seen in RG3. Peripherally, Lox6 is expressed principally in the primordia of the sensillae and in the eyes. This pattern of expression of Lox6 suggests that one of its functions may be to contribute to the diversification of neuronal phenotypes. Received: 16 August 1997/Accepted: 20 December 1997     

脑室内注入TRH对大鼠肝脏无机磷代谢影响的核磁共振分析

采用在大鼠脑室内注入促甲状腺激素释放激素（Ｔｈｙｒｏｔｒｏｐｉｎｒｅｌｅａｓｉｎｇｈｏｒｍｏｎｅ,ＴＲＨ）,并利用３１Ｐ－核磁共振法测定活体大鼠肝脏中的含磷化学物质,并观察ＴＲＨ对肝脏无机磷代谢的影响,研究证明,ＴＲＨ通过中枢神经影响肝脏中无机磷的代谢。由侧脑室注入ＴＲＨ,使肝脏无机磷含量发生显著增加,此作用由于副交感神经的阻断剂阿托品的加入而消失,由此可以认为,ＴＲＨ是经由副交感神经而影响肝脏的代谢。     

Co-expression Profiling of Autism Genes in the Mouse Brain

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the most prevalent and highly heritable neurodevelopmental disorders in humans. There is significant evidence that the onset and severity of ASD is governed in part by complex genetic mechanisms affecting the normal development of the brain. To date, a number of genes have been associated with ASD. However, the temporal and spatial co-expression of these genes in the brain remain unclear. To address this issue, we examined the co-expression network of 26 autism genes from AutDB (http://mindspec.org/autdb.html), in the framework of 3,041 genes whose expression energies have the highest correlation between the coronal and sagittal images from the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas database (http://mouse.brain-map.org). These data were derived from in situ hybridization experiments conducted on male, 56-day old C57BL/6J mice co-registered to the Allen Reference Atlas, and were used to generate a normalized co-expression matrix indicating the cosine similarity between expression vectors of genes in this database. The network formed by the autism-associated genes showed a higher degree of co-expression connectivity than seen for the other genes in this dataset (Kolmogorov–Smirnov P = 5×10⁻²⁸). Using Monte Carlo simulations, we identified two cliques of co-expressed genes that were significantly enriched with autism genes (A Bonferroni corrected P<0.05). Genes in both these cliques were significantly over-expressed in the cerebellar cortex (P = 1×10⁻⁵) suggesting possible implication of this brain region in autism. In conclusion, our study provides a detailed profiling of co-expression patterns of autism genes in the mouse brain, and suggests specific brain regions and new candidate genes that could be involved in autism etiology.     

The Distribution of Cathepsin D Activity in Adult and Aging Human Brain Regions

We measured the activity of cathepsin D, the major cerebral protease, in 50 separate areas of the central nervous system of adult and aged humans, using hemoglobin as the substrate. The activity showed significant regional heterogeneity, with average differences of 50-100% between the lower and higher level areas, and a more than threefold difference between the lowest and highest levels. The forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain each had areas of high and low activity; cerebellum and cord areas were among those with low activity. Cathepsin levels tended to increase with age in about half of the areas analyzed, and the increases were significant in 14. Statistically significant decreases with aging were observed in two areas. The increases varied between 30 and 60%, and the decreases were 20%. Enzyme activity in thalamus, hypothalamus, pons, medulla, and cerebellum increased with age. In the ventrolateral medulla, which contains the major portion of the cerebral noradrenergic cells, the cathepsin D levels increased with age; in the dorsal raphe area, which contains the major portion of the cerebral serotonergic cells, the enzyme levels decreased. The change with age in human brain seems to be less than what we observed in rat brain, where activity more than doubled in most areas. The changes in enzyme levels need to be tested at more ages to establish a pattern of changes in activity throughout life.     

Characterization and Comparison of Neurofilament Proteins from Rat and Mouse CNS

Rat and mouse CNS neurofilament proteins (NFPs) were characterized and compared, in terms of electrophoretic properties on polyacrylamide gels and by peptide mapping, with one another and with other co-purifying lower-molecular-weight CNS proteins, including α and β tubulin. NFPs were partially purified by modification of the axon flotation procedure of Norton and co-workers and were demyelinated with Triton X-100. On one-dimensional SDS polyacrylamide gels the molecular weights of the triad of NFPs from both rat and mouse were approximately 200,000, 140,000, and 70,000. Prominent lower-molecular-weight proteins (63,000-16,000) as well as minor amounts of tubulin and actin were observed after gel electrophoresis. On two-dimensional gels (isoelectric focusing followed by SDS gel electrophoresis) each of the NFPs appeared to be composed of more than one component and the corresponding NFPs from rat and mouse had similar isoelectric points. Gel electrophoresis peptide mapping using Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease indicated the following: (1) the triad of NFPs of different sizes have different peptide maps; (2) α and β tubulin have nonidentical digestion products, which are dissimilar to those of the NFPs; (3) other proteins that co-purify by the axon flotation procedure also have nonidentical peptide maps; and (4) the corresponding NFPs from rat and mouse have similar peptide maps. The co-purifying proteins examined in detail (63,000–49,000) do not appear to be derived by proteolytic cleavage of NFPs and may represent other cytoskeletal constituents.     

Early appearance of catecholaminergic neurons in the central nervous system of precocial and altricial avian species

Summary The early appearance of catecholaminergic neurons, as revealed by fluorescence histochemistry, has been determined in the central nervous system of quail, pheasant, and pigeon embryos. The first neuronal assemblies displaying specific fluorescence are the locus coeruleus and the nucleus subcoeruleus ventralis. Taking into account the differences in the length of the prehatching period of these three avian species, the first catecholamine-containing neurons appear earlier in the precocial quail and pheasant than in the altricial pigeon.Investigation supported by grants from the Italian National Research Council (CNR) No 83.02058.04 (R.G.) and No 83.00492.04 (G.C.P.).     

中枢神经系统奴卡菌感染诊治分析附一例鼻疽奴卡菌脑脓肿

目的:了解中枢神经系统(CNS)奴卡菌感染的临床特点、诊治方法及预后。方法:对青岛大学附属医院收治的1例脑奴卡菌感染病例进行报道,并检索相关文献报道的脑奴卡菌感染共31例,对以上32例进行回顾性分析。结果:32例患者中,22例存在基础疾病,18例有糖皮质激素或免疫抑制剂治疗史。主要临床表现为头痛,发热,恶心、呕吐,口齿不清,意识障碍,肢体功能障碍等。7例接受复方磺胺甲噁唑单药治疗,17例接受复方磺胺甲噁唑联合其他抗生素治疗,8例接受喹诺酮类、氨基糖苷类、β-内酰胺类等联合治疗。23例好转或治愈,9例死亡。结论:免疫功能低下是中枢神经系统奴卡菌病的危险因素;奴卡菌培养阳性是确诊该病的惟一方法;应及早应用磺胺类药物,必要时结合外科手术治疗。     

人同源异型盒基因Hu-1位点的RFLPs研究

用12种限制性核酸内切酶分别对4至104条人类染色体进行酶谱分析,以寻找Hu-1基因附近的限制性酶切多态位点,仅发现了Bg 1Ⅱ酶的一个多态性位点。表现为Bg 1Ⅱ酶谱中除3.6kb片段外,杂合子型尚具6.3及6.6kb两种片段,而纯合子型则只有6.3或6.6kb一种片段。在所检查的104条染色体中6.6kb片段出现的频率为3.88％,而6.3kb片段出现的频率为96.12％。经统计分析,计算出Hu-1基因及其附近的核苷酸变异率为0.0017,大体上与人β珠蛋白基因簇及人α-1-抗胰蛋白酶基因的核苷酸变异率相似。文中对本工作的意义进行了初步讨论。