title: A novel mouse beta-defensin, mBD-6, predominantly expressed in skeletal muscle.
abstract: Defensins comprise a family of cationic antimicrobial peptides that is characterized by the conserved 6 cysteine residues. They are expressed in the epithelial cells of various organs and are identified as key elements in the host defense system at the mucosal surface. We isolated a novel mouse beta-defensin gene from the bacterial artificial chromosome DNA containing the mouse beta-defensin-3 gene. The full-length cDNA was cloned from skeletal muscle cDNA and called mouse beta-defensin-6 (mBD-6). The predicted peptide conserved the 6-cysteine motif and had 59% amino acid sequence identity with mouse beta-defensin-3 and 59% identity with mouse beta-defensin-4. We demonstrated the expression of mBD-6 in skeletal muscle in addition to the esophagus, tongue, and trachea. In animal models of endotoxemia, mBD-6 expression was also induced in the lung. mBD-6 showed potent antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli and would play an important role in host defense in the esophagus, airways, and skeletal muscle. mBD-6 is the first reported beta-defensin predominantly expressed in skeletal muscle. This unique tissue specificity suggests some novel physiological roles of this peptide family.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geriatric Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fukuhara
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagase
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tomita
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hitomi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kurihara
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ouchi
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D023082:Defensins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000378:metabolism*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; C434952:Defb6 protein, mouse; D023082:Defensins