Differential expression and tissue distribution of parkin isoforms during mouse development.

Mutations of the parkin gene are a cause of autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism. Although the parkin gene has been isolated from mouse, rat, and human, little is known about its expression in neural and nonneural tissues during development. In this study, we used a polyclonal antibody to a peptide downstream of the parkin ubiquitin domain to investigate (1) the differential expression of parkin isoforms in protein extracts from fetal and adult mouse tissues, and (2) the distribution of parkin in mouse fetal tissues at different developmental stages and in adult CNS tissues. By Western blot analyses, at least three isoforms of parkin of 22, 50, and 55 kDa were differentially expressed in mouse tissues. The p22 and p50 isoforms were found in fetal and adult mouse CNS tissues, while the p55 isoform was found only in adult tissues. The p50 isoform is the predominant form in both fetal and adult tissues. Immunolocalization in mouse fetuses showed that parkin was expressed only after neuronal differentiation. Although parkin was localized throughout the cytoplasm, the highest level of parkin was found in the neurites of both fetal and adult neurons.