A secreted fluorescent reporter targeted to pituitary growth hormone cells in transgenic mice.

In stable transfection experiments in the GH-producing GC cell line, a construct containing the entire signal peptide and the first 22 residues of human GH linked in frame with enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP), produced brightly fluorescent cells with a granular distribution of eGFP. This eGFP reporter was then inserted into a 40-kb cosmid transgene containing the locus control region for the hGH gene and used to generate transgenic mice. Anterior pituitaries from these GH-eGFP transgenic mice showed numerous clusters of strongly fluorescent cells, which were also immunopositive for GH, and which could be isolated and enriched by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Confocal scanning microscopy of pituitary GH cells from GH-eGFP transgenic mice showed a markedly granular appearance of fluorescence. Immunogold electron microscopy and RIA confirmed that the eGFP product was packaged in the dense cored secretory vesicles of somatotrophs and was secreted in parallel with GH in response to stimulation by GRF. Using eGFP fluorescence, it was possible to identify clusters of GH cells in acute pituitary slices and to observe spontaneous transient rises in their intracellular Ca2+ concentrations after loading with Ca2+ sensitive dyes. This transgenic approach opens the way to direct visualization of spontaneous and secretagogue-induced secretory mechanisms in identified GH cells.

Autoimmune antigen megalin displays similarities with skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor/Ca2+ release channel.

Ryanodine receptors are a family of intracellular Ca2+ release channel proteins, which exist as tetrameric complexes of large ( approximately 5000 amino acid residue) polypeptide monomers. As well as controlling striated muscle contraction and neurotransmitter release, these channel proteins have been implicated in several pathological states. In order to characterise ryanodine receptors in various tissues, mouse monoclonal antibodies were developed against the type 1 isoform isolated from skeletal muscle. Several of these antibodies recognise ryanodine receptor in skeletal muscle, as well as high molecular weight (k-HMW) protein in kidney microsomes. Like the ryanodine receptor, the k-HMW protein binds 45Ca2+ and sediments as a large complex upon sucrose density-gradient centrifugation. In contrast, the k-HMW protein does not bind ryanodine and is glycosylated. Furthermore, monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies generated against purified k-HMW protein do not recognise skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor. Characterisation of a cDNA clone encoding part of the k-HMW protein revealed that it is likely to be the rabbit homologue of human megalin, an autoimmune antigen in membranous glomerulonephritis. Potential consequences of immunological similarities between ryanodine receptors and megalin are discussed in terms of autoimmune disease.

Spatial learning and hippocampal long-term potentiation are not impaired in mdx mice.

Moderate non-progressive cognitive impairment is a consistent feature of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), although few central nervous system abnormalities have yet been identified. A model for DMD is provided by the mdx mouse which fails to produce full length dystrophin in muscle and brain. In this study we have compared performances in a hippocampal-dependent spatial learning task, the Morris water maze, in mdx mice and in age-matched normal (C57BL/10) mice. There was no difference in acquisition rates or in retention between the two groups. We also found no difference in the magnitude of long-term potentiation (LTP) between the two groups, either in the dentate gyrus or in area CA. These experiments demonstrate that neither spatial learning nor hippocampal synaptic plasticity are significantly affected by the lack of full-length dystrophin.

Calcium oscillations in mammalian eggs triggered by a soluble sperm protein.

At fertilization in mammals, the sperm induces a characteristic series of Ca2+ oscillations in the egg which serve as the essential trigger for egg activation and early development of the embryo. It is not known how the sperm initiates this fundamental process, however, nor has any pathway linking sperm-egg membrane-receptor binding with intracellular Ca2+ release been demonstrated. Microinjection of sperm extracts into mammalian eggs elicits Ca2+ oscillations identical to those occurring at fertilization, which suggests that sperm may introduce a Ca2+ oscillation-inducing factor into the egg on gamete membrane fusion. Here we identify a soluble sperm protein that exhibits Ca2+ oscillation-inducing ('oscillogen') activity in eggs. Sperm oscillogen exists as an oligomer with a subunit of M(r) 33K and a specific intracellular localization at the equatorial segment of the sperm head. Cloning of the 33K oscillogen complementary DNA indicates similarity with a hexose phosphate isomerase found in prokaryotes. This sperm-derived oscillogen, termed oscillin, may represent the physiological trigger for development in mammals.