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Show EXPRESSION OF ETS TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS IN THE KIDNEY Niederhauser, Blake; (Miller, R Lance, Ph.D., Ping Zhang; Raoul Nelson, M.D., Ph.D.) Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah The purpose of this study was to characterize the expression pat-tern of epithelial-specific Ets transcription factors (ESEl, ESE2, ESE3) in the mouse kidney. Ets factors have been found to be involved in a myriad of functions, including carcinogenesis, gene activation and repression, cell proliferation, differentiation, and are found in many different tissues and cell types. PCR subtraction clon-ing revealed that ESEl and 3 were expressed in primary cultures of mouse renal collecting duct principal cells. Using real-time quantitative RT-PCR, we describe the expression of these factors in select epithelial and non-epithelial organs and their intra-renal distribution. Results show that ESEl, 2, and 3 are highly expressed in epithelial organs. The kidney demonstrated a variegated ex-pression pattern with the highest levels of these genes being ex-pressed in the inner medulla followed by the outer medulla, with the lowest levels in the cortex. Furthermore, ESEl, 2, and 3 were found to be expressed at levels 10-15X higher in isolated collect-ing duct tubules than in non-collecting duct tubules. These stud-ies are the first of their kind in describing and quantifying ESEl, 2, and 3 mRNA transcript levels in the kidney. Because the renal collecting duct plays such an important role in regulating blood pressure and maintaining acid-base balance, important path-ways therein may be implicated by further studies as being regu-lated by these Ets factors and would help in better understanding related diseases. Blake Niederhauser Biology Faculty Sponsor Raoul D. Nelson MD, Ph.D. |
