The elongated PAP II/Reg III mRNA is upregulated in rat pancreas during acute experimental pancreatitis.
BACKGROUND
The pathogenesis and the mechanism of the development of severe acute pancreatitis are not clearly understood.


OBJECTIVE
We performed differential display analysis to find genes that show transcriptional changes in the pancreas during the development of severe acute pancreatitis in the rat.


METHODS
Twenty candidate pancreatitis-associated complementary DNA (cDNA) fragments were isolated. cDNA sequencing and subsequent database analysis revealed that one fragment (C18-2) among the 20 cDNA fragments showed no significant sequence similarity to previously reported genes, suggesting that it represented a novel gene. The rapid and high expression of C18-2 during the acute phase of pancreatitis suggested that the gene was involved in the development of acute pancreatitis. Therefore, we used rapid amplification of cDNA ends and identified the full-length cDNA.


RESULTS
Analysis of the open reading frame of the cDNA indicated that the deduced protein from the messenger RNA (mRNA) was a polypeptide of 174 amino acids, unexpectedly similar to that of a known gene, rat pancreatitis-associated protein II/regenerating gene III (PAP II/Reg III). However, the length of the identified mRNA (1,467 base pairs) was longer than that of rat PAP II mRNA (885 base pairs), because the elongated mRNA was generated through the different polyadenylation site in the same gene. The elongated mRNA after acute pancreatitis was strongly induced in the restricted early phase, in comparison with the original mRNA.


CONCLUSIONS
It is considered that the elongated mRNA affects the function of PAP II/Reg III protein because the elongated mRNA with long 3; untranslated regions is known to be involved in the translation efficiency. The identified mRNA may play an important role in the progression of pancreatitis.
Honda
Hidekazu
H
Third Department of Internal Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan.
Nakamura
Hayato
H
Otsuki
Makoto
M
D000208:Acute Disease; D000209:Acute-Phase Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D001483:Base Sequence; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D007668:Kidney / Q000378:metabolism; D037181:Lectins, C-Type; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010179:Pancreas / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D010195:Pancreatitis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D000073718:Pancreatitis-Associated Proteins; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013154:Spleen / Q000378:metabolism; D015854:Up-Regulation
D000209:Acute-Phase Proteins; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D037181:Lectins, C-Type; D000073718:Pancreatitis-Associated Proteins; D011506:Proteins; C000612141:REG3A protein, human; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C000612146:Reg3a protein, rat; C490253:Reg3b protein, mouse; C000612144:Reg3b protein, rat; C088549:RegIII protein, mouse