c-kit Gene was not transcribed in cultured mast cells of mast cell-deficient Wsh/Wsh mice that have a normal number of erythrocytes and a normal c-kit coding region.
The Wsh is a mutant allele at the W (c-kit) locus of mice. Mice of Wsh/Wsh genotype have white hairs and black eyes. Although adult C57BL/6-Wsh/Wsh mice were not anemic, they showed a remarkable depletion of mast cells. Most homozygous or double heterozygous mutant mice at the W (c-kit) locus, of which mast-cell depletion was comparable to that of Wsh/Wsh mice, are deficient in germ cells. However, male and female Wsh/Wsh mice have an appreciable number of germ cells in their gonads. We investigated the mechanism of specific depletion of mast cells in Wsh/Wsh mice. Cultured mast cells (CMC) derived from the spleen of Wsh/Wsh mice neither attached to normal (+/+) fibroblasts nor survived in the coculture with +/+ fibroblasts. The c-kit messenger RNA (mRNA) was strongly expressed in +/+ CMC, but not detectable in Wsh/Wsh CMC. Despite the lack of c-kit mRNA in Wsh/Wsh CMC, the c-kit mRNA was normally detectable in the cerebellum and weakly detectable in the testis and spleen of Wsh/Wsh mice. No significant changes were found in the nucleotide sequence of the c-kit transcripts obtained from the cerebellum of Wsh/Wsh mice. Development of mast cells, erythrocytes, and germ cells in Wsh/Wsh mice appeared to be parallel with the magnitude of the c-kit gene expression in each cell type.
Tono
T
T
Department of Pathology, Medical School, Osaka University, Suita, Japan.
Tsujimura
T
T
Koshimizu
U
U
Kasugai
T
T
Adachi
S
S
Isozaki
K
K
Nishikawa
S
S
Morimoto
M
M
Nishimune
Y
Y
Nomura
S
S
D000740:Anemia / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002452:Cell Count; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003062:Codon; D004906:Erythrocyte Count; D005260:Female; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008407:Mast Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008817:Mice, Mutant Strains / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D003062:Codon; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit