Goliger J A, Gudas L J
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.
Gene Expr. 1992;2(2):147-60.
Expression of the murine homeobox gene Hox 1.6 rapidly increases in F9 teratocarcinoma cells when these cells are induced with retinoic acid to differentiate into primitive and parietal endoderm. Hox 1.6 encodes a putative transcriptional regulatory protein which may function as a secondary regulator of gene expression during the differentiation process. To examine the role of the Hox 1.6 gene, we have stably transfected F9 stem cells with a cDNA containing the complete coding sequence of Hox 1.6 under the control of the mouse metallothionein promoter. Two clonally distinct cell lines that express high levels of the transfected Hox 1.6 gene have been isolated and characterized. We show that expression of the transfected Hox 1.6 gene in F9 cells dramatically alters the stem cell morphology. However, the transfected cells do not differentiate in the absence of retinoic acid treatment, nor are they prevented from differentiating in response to such treatments. We therefore suggest that the Hox 1.6 gene controls the expression of genes which influence changes in F9 cell morphology during RA-induced differentiation.
当用视黄酸诱导F9畸胎癌细胞分化为原始内胚层和壁内胚层时，小鼠同源框基因Hox 1.6的表达迅速增加。Hox 1.6编码一种假定的转录调节蛋白，它可能在分化过程中作为基因表达的二级调节因子发挥作用。为了研究Hox 1.6基因的作用，我们用一个在小鼠金属硫蛋白启动子控制下包含Hox 1.6完整编码序列的cDNA稳定转染了F9干细胞。已经分离并鉴定了两个克隆不同的细胞系，它们表达高水平的转染Hox 1.6基因。我们表明，转染的Hox 1.6基因在F9细胞中的表达显著改变了干细胞形态。然而，在没有视黄酸处理的情况下，转染细胞不会分化，对这种处理也不会阻止其分化。因此，我们认为Hox 1.6基因控制着在视黄酸诱导的分化过程中影响F9细胞形态变化的基因的表达。
