Hayashida K, Tsuchiya Y, Kurokawa S, Hattori M, Ishibashi H, Okubo H, Sakaki Y
J Biochem. 1986 Oct;100(4):989-93. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jbchem.a121812.
Rat alpha 2-macroglobulin (alpha 2M) is a typical acute phase protein, the concentration of which in serum increases more than 100-fold after inflammation. It is also known that the protein increases during pregnant (and neonatal) stages. Using a specific cDNA probe, expression of the alpha 2M gene during pregnancy was studied at the mRNA level. During inflammation, the liver is almost the only organ producing alpha 2M, but during pregnancy the placenta and uterus were found to be major organs producing a large amount (70-80% of that of inflamed liver) of alpha 2M mRNA at days 12-15. The yolk sac, maternal liver and fetal (or neonatal) liver also produced a small but significant amount (5-20% of that of inflamed liver) of the mRNA. Southern blotting analysis showed that only one copy of the alpha 2M gene was present in a haploid rat genome. These results indicated that a single alpha 2M gene has the ability to respond to two completely-different physiological states.
大鼠α2-巨球蛋白（α2M）是一种典型的急性期蛋白，炎症后其血清浓度增加100倍以上。还已知该蛋白在怀孕（和新生儿）阶段会增加。使用特异性cDNA探针，在mRNA水平研究了怀孕期间α2M基因的表达。在炎症期间，肝脏几乎是产生α2M的唯一器官，但在怀孕第12至15天，胎盘和子宫被发现是产生大量（发炎肝脏的70-80%）α2M mRNA的主要器官。卵黄囊、母体肝脏和胎儿（或新生儿）肝脏也产生少量但显著量（发炎肝脏的5-20%）的mRNA。Southern印迹分析表明，单倍体大鼠基因组中仅存在一个α2M基因拷贝。这些结果表明，单个α2M基因具有对两种完全不同生理状态作出反应的能力。
