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Kenzo Sato

Publications and source records attributed to Kenzo Sato.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Carp, a cardiac ankyrin-repeated protein, and its new homologue, Arpp, are differentially expressed in heart, skeletal muscle, and rhabdomyosarcomas.

Arpp, a protein containing an ankyrin repeat domain, PEST sequence, and proline-rich region, is a novel ankyrin-repeated protein highly homologous to Carp, which is proposed to be the putative genetic marker for cardiac hypertrophy. In this study, we comparatively analyzed expression of Arpp and Carp protein in skeletal and cardiac muscles and rhabdomyosarcomas (RMSs). In adult skeletal muscle, Arpp was preferentially expressed in the nucleus and cytoplasm of type I fibers, whereas Carp was barely detectable in skeletal muscle. On the other hand, in adult cardiac muscle, interestingly, Arpp was expressed in ventricles mostly, whereas Carp was expressed throughout the atrium and ventricle. Furthermore, although Carp was identified in fetal heart at 11 developmental weeks, Arpp was very low or undetectable in these fetal hearts. These results suggest that Arpp and Carp are differentially expressed and function in both skeletal and cardiac muscle of fetus and adult. We found that Arpp expression was induced during the differentiation of C2C12 cells in vitro, suggesting that Arpp-expression may be associated with the differentiation stage during myogenesis. Both Arpp and Carp were found to be expressed in all of the RMS cases studied. Because the expression patterns of Arpp in RMS were different from those of muscle actin or desmin, Arpp may be detectable in RMS cases that do not express other existing RMS markers.

Actins↗

Arpp, a new homolog of carp, is preferentially expressed in type 1 skeletal muscle fibers and is markedly induced by denervation.

In this study, we isolated and characterized a murine counterpart of the human Arpp (hArpp) gene. Sequence analysis revealed that the murine Arpp (mArpp) gene is almost identical to the Ankrd2 gene, which has recently been isolated as a mouse gene induced in stretched skeletal muscle. The mArpp gene encodes a protein of 332 amino acids that contains four well-conserved ankyrin-repeat domains in the central portion of the protein. The amino acid sequence of mArpp protein (mArpp) is highly homologous to that of mouse cardiac-restricted ankyrin-repeat protein (Carp), which is proposed to be a putative genetic marker for cardiac hypertrophy. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that mArpp is preferentially expressed in type 1 skeletal muscle fibers, and that mArpp is localized in both the nucleus and the sarcomeric I-band of muscle fibers, suggesting that Arpp may function as a nuclear and sarcomeric protein. Furthermore, mArpp was also expressed in neurons of the cerebellum and cerebrum, the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas, and the esophageal epithelium, suggesting that mArpp may play a functional physiologic role in brain, pancreas, and esophagus as well as in type 1 muscle fibers. Interestingly, although mArpp was localized in both nucleus and cytoplasm in neurons, its localization was restricted to nucleus in pancreas and esophagus, suggesting that intracellular localization of mArpp is regulated in a tissue-specific manner. Furthermore, we found that mArpp- and Carp-expression in skeletal muscle were markedly up-regulated after denervation. Although the elevated expression level of Carp was kept only for two weeks after denervation, that of Arpp was kept at least for 4 weeks, suggesting that mArpp and Carp may play distinct functional roles in denervated skeletal muscle.

Animals↗

Cystic fibrosis transport regulator and its mRNA are expressed in human epidermis.

Cystic fibrosis transport regulator is a cAMP-dependent chloride channel protein. Normal (non cystic fibrosis) human epidermis stained positive for cystic fibrosis transport regulator as densely as did the eccrine sweat gland when three monoclonal antibodies for R (regulatory) and C (C-terminus) domains of cystic fibrosis transport regulator were used. All the layers of the epidermis took up staining uniformly. A peptide for C-epitope completely blocked the staining with monoclonal antibodies for C. Nested reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction of freshly isolated human epidermal fragments and the eccrine sweat glands amplified the cystic fibrosis transport regulator mRNA sequence derived from exons 13 and 14 to comparable extents. The 526 base pair antisense, but not sense, RNA probe derived from exons 10-13 stained cystic fibrosis transport regulator mRNA in both the epidermis and the sweat gland to a similar extent. In the epidermis, the cytoplasm of basal cells, stratum spinosum cells, and granular layer cells were all stained uniformly, but not corneocytes in the stratum corneum. In the sweat secretory coils, both clear and dark cells were stained but not the myoepithelium, with the dark cells staining more densely than the clear cells as in a previous study. In the duct, both luminal and basal ductal cells took up cystic fibrosis transport regulator staining uniformly but luminal cytoplasm of luminal ductal cells was devoid of cystic fibrosis transport regulator mRNA. Although the function of cystic fibrosis transport regulator in the epidermis is totally unknown, its recently proposed role as a universal regulator of a variety of cellular and membrane functions necessitates further studies on its regulation and function in health and disease.

Adult↗

Identification of differentially expressed genes in rat hepatoma cell lines using subtraction and microarray.

Rat hepatoma Fao is a well-differentiated cell line that expresses numerous liver-specific enzymes and liver-enriched transcription factors, whereas the C2 cell line derived from Fao exhibits dedifferentiated phenotypes and fails to express these differentiated traits. Hence, to identify the gene related to the differentiation status in these cells, we analyzed differentially expressed genes between Fao and C2 cells using a microarray of 1,000 identified cDNA clones, and isolated a cDNA clone from subtractive library constructed by suppression subtractive hybridization. D6.1A, a member of the tetraspanin protein superfamily, was identified as a gene enhanced in C2 cells compared with Fao cells. Interestingly, expression of this gene was also induced following liver injury by CCl(4) and in liver regeneration following partial hepatectomy. These results suggest that the D6.1A gene is related to stimulation of cell proliferation and differentiation status in C2 hepatoma cells.

Animals↗

Altered expression of cardiac ankyrin repeat protein and its homologue, ankyrin repeat protein with PEST and proline-rich region, in atrophic muscles in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

OBJECTIVES: Cardiac ankyrin repeat protein, CARP, is a protein that is restrictedly expressed in the heart but barely expressed in skeletal muscles. Since CARP is induced by pressure overload to the heart, it is proposed to be a genetic marker for cardiac hypertrophy. We recently identified a novel protein, ankyrin repeat protein with PEST and proline-rich region (ARPP), which is homologous to CARP and is preferentially expressed in type 1 skeletal muscle fibers (cf. slow fibers). We also found that both ARPP and CARP expression is induced in experimentally denervated skeletal muscles in mice. Based on these findings, we hypothesized that their expression may be induced in skeletal muscles in neurodegenerating disease. This work aimed to determine the expression pattern of ARPP and CARP in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). METHODS: In this study, we immunohistochemically analyzed the expression of ARPP and CARP in skeletal muscles of 9 ALS cases. RESULTS: We found that CARP was aberrantly expressed in atrophic skeletal muscle fibers in ALS. Although ARPP-positive fibers were randomly scattered in a checkerboard-like pattern in normal skeletal muscle, this pattern was absent in ALS muscles. Furthermore, we also found that ARPP was expressed in fast myosin heavy chain-positive fibers (cf. type 2 fiber). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that type-specific expression patterns of ARPP and CARP are altered in skeletal muscles of ALS.

Aged↗