Ventricular myosin light chain-2 gene expression in developing heart of chicken embryos.
Recent gene knock-out studies in mice have suggested that ventricular myosin light chain-2 (vMLC2) has a role in the regulation of cardiogenic development and that perturbation in expression of vMLC2 is linked to the onset of dilated cardiomyopathy. In an attempt to develop an avian model for such studies, we examined the expression pattern of vMLC2 in chicken embryos at various stages and analyzed the effect of antisense oligonucleotide-mediated interference of vMLC2 function in cultures of whole embryos. Our results showed vMLC2 to be a specific marker for ventricular chamber throughout chicken embryonic development and antisense vMLC2 treatment of primitive streak stage (stage 4) embryos to produce pronounced dilation of heart tube with severe deficiency in formation of striated myofibrils. Further studies with antisense mRNA techniques of whole embryo cultures should, therefore, be useful to evaluate the role of vMLC2 and other putative regulatory factors in cardiac myofibrillogenesis.
Ghatpande
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Dept. of Anatomy & Cell Biology, State University of New York, Health Science Center at Brooklyn, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA.
Shafiq
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Siddiqui
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MA
D000818:Animals; D024722:Cardiac Myosins; D002311:Cardiomyopathy, Dilated / Q000196:embryology; D002642:Chick Embryo; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D006321:Heart / Q000196:embryology*; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000196:embryology; D006352:Heart Ventricles; D017403:In Situ Hybridization / Q000379:methods; D018994:Myosin Light Chains / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D016376:Oligonucleotides, Antisense / Q000494:pharmacology; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D018994:Myosin Light Chains; D016376:Oligonucleotides, Antisense; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C107184:myosin light chain 2; D024722:Cardiac Myosins