The expression profile of the H19 gene in cattle.

The expression of the H19 gene has been well studied in fetal human and mouse tissues but not in cattle. It is generally believed that H19 is abundantly expressed in the early stages of embryogenesis and is repressed postnatally. We report the expression pattern of this gene in cattle in a total of 120 fetal-organ combinations and in a total of 108 adult-organ combinations using quantitative real time PCR. In fetal tissues, H19 was abundantly expressed in amnion, chorion, and allantois. Fetal liver, lung, heart, spleen, eye, rib, mammary gland, and cotyledon showed moderate expression, while intestine and brain showed lower expression levels. For some organs examined in this study, the expression pattern in cattle fetal organs was similar to that of human, mouse, and sheep. For adult organs, H19 was highly expressed in muscle and moderately expressed in liver, lung, heart, kidney, pancreas, and ovary. Low expression levels were observed for adult spleen, caruncle, and endometrium. Of considerable interest was the observation that H19 transcripts have not been detected in the mouse and human kidney or in the mouse spleen. In contrast, we observed significant expression levels in adult kidney and low expression levels in adult spleen. In a comparison of adults and fetuses, significant differences in H19 expression levels were found for liver, lung, heart, and spleen. The expression pattern in adults implies that, in addition to possible roles in embryogenesis, the H19 gene may have other functions.