title: Expression of fasciculation and elongation protein zeta-1 (FEZ1) in cultured rat neonatal astrocytes.
abstract: Astrocytes play a more important role than simply providing physical support for neurons, however, the function(s) of type 1 and type 2 astrocytes (T1As, T2As), remains unclear. A DNA microarray was used to identify gene expression in cultured T1As and T2As isolated from postnatal day 1 rat cortex. Ninety-nine of the 138 differentially expressed genes were involved in a diverse number of processes. The fasciculation and elongation protein zeta-1 (FEZ1) gene was studied further because it has been suggested that it is not expressed by astrocytes. RT-PCR and Western blots confirmed the microarray data and showed that FEZ1 was present in T1 and T2As and is more highly expressed in T2As. Immunocytochemistry revealed that FEZ1 was located in the astrocytic cytoplasm and cell processes but not the nucleus. The results contribute to a clearer understanding of the two types of astrocytes.
authors.affiliation: Cytoneurobiology Unit & Laboratory of Aging and Nervous Diseases, Medical College of Soochow University, 199 Ren-Ai Road, Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou, JS, 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jianghong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zhijun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Maomin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Chunlin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xia
mesh_terms: D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000378:metabolism*; D001483:Base Sequence; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D017931:DNA Primers; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D051381:Rats; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; D017931:DNA Primers; C483740:Fez1 protein, rat