Neural expression profile of Elav-like genes in human brain

作者：Schramm M; Falkai P; Pietsch T; Neidt I; Egensperger R; Bayer TA^*

来源：Clinical Neuropathology, 1999, 18(1): 17-22.

• development
• glioblastoma
• medulloblastoma
• post-mortem
• RT-PCR

Background: Hel-N1 and HuD belong to the elav gene family and have a considerable role in neuronal development. However, there is only limited information available on the expression profile in human brain and neural tumor cell lines.Method: Therefore, RT-PCR analysis has been performed on human fetal, normal adult, and psychiatric brains (from patients with schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, and alcoholism) as well as 20 glioblastoma and 9 medulloblastoma cell lines.Results: Both, Hel-N1 and HuD were abundantly expressed in all brain samples with no obvious difference. However, the neural tumor cell lines showed a differential expression pattern. The medulloblastoma cell lines expressed at least one of the genes in a frequency of 67% for HuD and 78% for Hel-N1 transcripts, respectively. In contrast to the glioblastoma cell lines, which revealed no evidence for HuD RT-PCR products. Surprisingly, 55% of the glioblastoma cell lines showed Hel-N1 expression.Conclusion: These observations indicate that Hel-N1 and HuD participate in molecular processes in human brain, both during development and in the mature adult brain. Hel-N1 and HuD transcriptional activity are stable markers for medulloblastoma cell lines, a tumor, which is thought to be derived from a neuronal precursor cell. The role of Hel-N1 in glioblastomas, the most prominent representative of the glial tumors is presently unclear. This finding is the first indication for a possible involvement of an Elav-like gene product in the glial cell lineage.

• 出版日期1999-2