Distribution of B/K protein in rat brain.
B/K protein is a recently isolated member of the double C2-like-domain protein family, which is highly abundant in rat brain. We generated high-titer rabbit polyclonal antibodies with specificity to the 55-kDa rat B/K protein, and examined the expression pattern of B/K protein in rat brain using an immunohistochemical staining method. Immunoreactivity to B/K protein was widely found in distinct regions of rat brain: strongly in the hypothalamus, most of the circumventricular organs, the locus coeruleus, the A5 neurons of the pons, and the anterior pituitary; moderately in the anterior olfactory nucleus, the raphe nucleus, the subfornical organ, and the median eminence; and faintly in the olfactory bulb, the telencephalon, the substantia nigra pars compacta, and the ventral tegmental area. In contrast, immunoreactivity to B/K protein was not observed in the thalamus, the cerebellum, the posterior pituitary, or the spinal cord. In most of the B/K-expressing neurons, immunoreactivity was expressed mainly in soma but not in nerve fibers. B/K was also expressed in nonneuronal cells such as the tanycytes and the subcommissural organ. In the vasopressin-secreting supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus, the site where B/K cDNA was originally isolated from, all of the neurons showing vasopressin immunoreactivity also expressed B/K protein, suggesting an overlap of their expression patterns.
Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul.
M Y
MY
Lee
S H
SH
Choi
S L
SL
Shin
H
H
Chin
O J
OJ
Kwon
D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000906:Antibodies / Q000302:isolation & purification; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000737:chemistry; D004027:Diencephalon / Q000737:chemistry; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D050857:Synaptotagmins; D013687:Telencephalon / Q000737:chemistry
D000906:Antibodies; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; C409229:Syt17 protein, rat; D050857:Synaptotagmins