|
|
|
|||
| Home Help Feedback Subscriptions Archive Search Table of Contents | ||||
First published online February 13, 2009
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 627-638 (2009)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2009
doi: 10.1242/jeb.026286
Diverse cell-specific expression of myoglobin isoforms in brain, kidney, gill and liver of the hypoxia-tolerant carp and zebrafish
1 School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Crown Street,
Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK
3 Department of Veterinary Pathology, University of Liverpool, Crown Street,
Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK
2 The Research Centre, Karlsruhe, Germany
* Author for correspondence (e-mail: cossins{at}liverpool.ac.uk)
Accepted 2 December 2008
Myoglobin (Mb) is famous as a muscle-specific protein – yet the common carp expresses the gene (cMb1) encoding this protein in a range of non-muscle tissues and also expresses a novel isoform (cMb2) in the brain. Using a homologous antibody and riboprobes, we have established the relative amounts and cellular sites of non-muscle Mb expression in different tissues. The amounts of carp myoglobin (cMb) in supernatants of different tissues were just 0.4–0.7% relative to that of heart supernatants and were upregulated by two-to-four fold in liver, gill and brain following 5 days of hypoxic treatment. Brain exhibited both cMb proteins in western analysis, whereas all other tissues had only cMb1. We have also identified cells expressing cMb protein and cMb mRNA using immunohistology and RNA in situ hybridisation (RNA-ISH), respectively. Mb was strongly expressed throughout all cardiac myocytes and a subset of skeletal muscle fibres, whereas it was restricted to a small range of specific cell types in each of the non-muscle tissues. These include pillar and epithelial cells in secondary gill lamellae, hepatocytes, some neurones, and tubular epithelial cells in the kidney. Capillaries and small blood vessels in all tissues exhibited Mb expression within vascular endothelial cells. The cMb2 riboprobe located expression to a subset of neurones but not to endothelial cells. In zebrafish, which possesses only one Mb gene, a similar expression pattern of Mb protein and mRNA was observed. This establishes a surprisingly cell-specific distribution of Mb within non-muscle tissues in both carp and zebrafish, where it probably plays an important role in the regulation of microvascular, renal and brain function.
Key words: immunohistology, in situ hybridisation, endothelial cells
![]()
CiteULike
Complore
Connotea
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Technorati
Twitter What's this?