Structural and Functional Characterization of Two Alternative Splicing Variants of Mouse Endothelial Cell-Specific Chemotaxis Regulator (ECSCR)

Autor: Hanju Huang, James Balducci, Yongchang Chang, Wen Wu, Hong Long Ji, Chunwei Shi, Yao Huang, Fanxin Ma
Rok vydání: 2012
Předmět:
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A
lcsh:Chemistry
Mice
Exon
0302 clinical medicine
Cell Movement
Protein Isoforms
Cloning
Molecular

lcsh:QH301-705.5
Spectroscopy
0303 health sciences
cDNA cloning and expression
isoform
Cell migration
General Medicine
Computer Science Applications
030220 oncology & carcinogenesis
ECSCR/ECSM2
RNA splicing
endothelial cell migration
Gene isoform
Green Fluorescent Proteins
Molecular Sequence Data
Neovascularization
Physiologic

Biology
Article
Catalysis
Cell Line
Inorganic Chemistry
alternative splicing
03 medical and health sciences
Animals
Humans
Amino Acid Sequence
Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
Molecular Biology
Gene
030304 developmental biology
Base Sequence
Organic Chemistry
HEK 293 cells
Alternative splicing
Endothelial Cells
Membrane Proteins
gene structure
Fusion protein
Molecular biology
HEK293 Cells
lcsh:Biology (General)
lcsh:QD1-999
exon-intron boundary
Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins
Sequence Alignment
Zdroj: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Volume 13
Issue 4
Pages 4920-4936
International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Vol 13, Iss 4, Pp 4920-4936 (2012)
ISSN: 1422-0067
Popis: Endothelial cells (ECs) that line the lumen of blood vessels are important players in blood vessel formation, and EC migration is a key component of the angiogenic process. Thus, identification of genes that are specifically or preferentially expressed in vascular ECs and in-depth understanding of their biological functions may lead to discovery of new therapeutic targets. We have previously reported molecular characterization of human endothelial cell-specific molecule 2 (ECSM2)/endothelial cell-specific chemotaxis regulator (ECSCR). In the present study, we cloned two mouse full-length cDNAs by RT-PCR, which encode two putative ECSCR isoform precursors with considerable homology to the human ECSCR. Nucleotide sequence and exon-intron junction analyses suggested that they are alternative splicing variants (ECSCR isoform-1 and -2), differing from each other in the first and second exons. Quantitative RT-PCR results revealed that isoform-2 is the predominant form, which was most abundant in heart, lung, and muscles, and moderately abundant in uterus and testis. In contrast, the expression of isoform-1 seemed to be more enriched in testis. To further explore their potential cellular functions, we expressed GFP- and FLAG-tagged ECSCR isoforms, respectively, in an ECSCR deficient cell line (HEK293). Interestingly, the actual sizes of either ECSCR-GFP or -FLAG fusion proteins detected by immunoblotting are much larger than their predicted sizes, suggesting that both isoforms are glycoproteins. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that both ECSCR isoforms are localized at the cell surface, which is consistent with the structural prediction. Finally, we performed cell migration assays using mouse endothelial MS1 cells overexpressing GFP alone, isoform-1-GFP, and isoform-2-GFP, respectively. Our results showed that both isoforms significantly inhibited vascular epidermal growth factor (VEGF)-induced cell migration. Taken together, we have provided several lines of experimental evidence that two mouse ECSCR splicing variants/isoform precursors exist. They are differentially expressed in a variety of tissue types and likely involved in modulation of vascular EC migration. We have also defined the gene structure of mouse ECSCR using bioinformatics tools, which provides new information towards a better understanding of alternative splicing of ECSCR.
Databáze: OpenAIRE