The molecular cloning of glial fibrillary acidic protein in Gekko japonicus and its expression changes after spinal cord transection.
The glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) is an astrocyte-specific member of the class III intermediate filament proteins. It is generally used as a specific marker of astrocytes in the central nervous system (CNS). We isolated a GFAP cDNA from the brain and spinal cord cDNA library of Gekko japonicus, and prepared polyclonal antibodies against gecko GFAP to provide useful tools for further immunochemistry studies. Both the real-time quantitative PCR and western blot results revealed that the expression of GFAP in the spinal cord after transection increased, reaching its maximum level after 3 days, and then gradually decreased over the rest of the 2 weeks of the experiment. Immunohistochemical analyses demonstrated that the increase in GFAP-positive labeling was restricted to the white matter rather than the gray matter. In particular, a slight increase in the number of GFAP positive star-shaped astrocytes was detected in the ventral and lateral regions of the white matter. Our results indicate that reactive astrogliosis in the gecko spinal cord took place primarily in the white matter during a short time interval, suggesting that the specific astrogliosis evaluated by GFAP expression might be advantageous in spinal cord regeneration.
Gao
Dehong
D
Department of Anatomy, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, PR China.
Wang
Yongjun
Y
Liu
Yan
Y
Ding
Fei
F
Gu
Xiaosong
X
Li
Zhengli
Z
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D019295:Computational Biology; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008116:Lizards; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D014018:Tissue Distribution
D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins