Tang K, Yang J, Gao X, Wang C, Liu L, Kitani H, Atsumi T, Jing N
Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yue Yang Road, Shanghai 200031, China.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2002 Apr 26;293(1):167-73. doi: 10.1016/S0006-291X(02)00215-2.
Wnt-1, the vertebrate counterpart of the Drosophila wingless gene, plays an important role in the early morphogenesis of neural tissues. In this report, we have shown that overexpression of Wnt-1 can direct embryonic carcinoma P19 cells to differentiate into neuron-like cells in the absence of retinoic acid. Immunocytochemistry showed that these cells expressed neuronal markers, such as the neurofilament (NF) and microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2), but failed to express the glial cell marker, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). RT-PCR revealed that two basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) genes, Mash-1 and Ngn-1, were up-regulated during the differentiation stage of Wnt-1-overexpressing P19 cells. These results suggest that the Wnt-1 gene promotes neuronal differentiation and inhibits gliogenesis during the neural differentiation of P19 cells, and that neural bHLH genes might be involved in this process.
Wnt-1是果蝇无翅基因在脊椎动物中的对应物，在神经组织的早期形态发生中起重要作用。在本报告中，我们已经表明，在没有视黄酸的情况下，Wnt-1的过表达可以引导胚胎癌P19细胞分化为神经元样细胞。免疫细胞化学显示这些细胞表达神经元标志物，如神经丝（NF）和微管相关蛋白2（MAP2），但不表达胶质细胞标志物胶质纤维酸性蛋白（GFAP）。逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）显示，在Wnt-1过表达的P19细胞分化阶段，两个碱性螺旋-环-螺旋（bHLH）基因，即Mash-1和Ngn-1，被上调。这些结果表明，Wnt-1基因在P19细胞的神经分化过程中促进神经元分化并抑制胶质细胞生成，并且神经bHLH基因可能参与了这一过程。
