[Demonstration by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry of human insulin gene expression cells in medial habenula of transgenic mice].
In transgenic mice carrying a human insulin transgene, in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry detected a cerebral site of expression of the human insulin gene. The gene construct that was introduced into the mouse genome included 168 base pairs (bp) upstream from the transcription unit of the human insulin gene. The human gene transcript and the corresponding proteins were detected in a cell subset of the medial habenula. This was found in 20 mice from three independent transgenic lines, indicating that expression was not dependent upon the insertion site of the transgene. When the DNA fragment upstream from the transcription unit was either larger (258 bp) or smaller (58 bp), this extrapancreatic expression of the human insulin transgene was not found. This result suggests that a sequence between nucleotides -58 and -168 might be responsible for an ectopic expression of the human insulin gene, specifically in habenular cells.
Douhet
P
P
Département de Neurobiologie des Signaux Intercellulaires, URA-CNRS n. 1488, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, Paris, France.
Bucchini
D
D
Jami
J
J
Calas
A
A
D000818:Animals; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D007328:Insulin / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D013788:Thalamus / Q000473:pathology*
D007328:Insulin