title: Calretinin is expressed in the intermediate cells during olfactory receptor neuron development.
abstract: The field of neurogenesis has greatly benefited from stage-specific marker discoveries. However, such markers are not well defined in the olfactory epithelium (OE), where olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) are constantly generated throughout lifetime. During OE neurogenesis, there is a lack of markers that label cells that are at the intermediate stage before they are fully mature. In this study, we show that during embryonic development calretinin is expressed transiently in the intermediate cells right before ORNs become mature. Calretinin is expressed between the end of beta-III tubulin (an immature neuronal marker) expression and the beginning of olfactory marker protein (OMP, a mature neuronal marker) expression in ORNs. Therefore, calretinin can serve as a marker of the intermediate ORNs. With this discovery, future studies can use calretinin as a tool to define these intermediate ORNs during olfactory neurogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110001, PR China. hongquanwei@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Hongquan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Ming-Fei
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.forename: Xuejun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D064032:Calbindin 2; D047108:Embryonic Development; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D055495:Neurogenesis; D051842:Olfactory Marker Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D018034:Olfactory Receptor Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D064030:S100 Calcium Binding Protein G / Q000378:metabolism*; D014404:Tubulin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C576511:Calb2 protein, mouse; D064032:Calbindin 2; D051842:Olfactory Marker Protein; C497598:Omp protein, mouse; D064030:S100 Calcium Binding Protein G; D014404:Tubulin; C462941:beta3 tubulin, mouse