Developmental expression of the cell adhesion molecule-like protein tyrosine phosphatases LAR, RPTPdelta and RPTPsigma in the mouse.

Using RNA in situ hybridization we compared the expression patterns of the cell adhesion molecule-like receptor-type protein tyrosine phosphatases LAR, RPTP sigma and RPTP sigma during mouse development. We found that LAR is expressed in basal lamina-associated epithelial tissues of (neuro)ectodermal, neural crest/ectomesenchyme and endodermal origin. RPTP sigma is found in (neuro)ectodermal, neural crest-derived systems and in mesoderm-derived tissues. The expression pattern of RPTP sigma largely parallels that of RPTP sigma, in concordance with their proposed evolutionary history

Effect of clofibrate on branched-chain amino acid metabolism.

Clofibric acid inhibited the oxidative decarboxylation of 4-methyl-2-oxopentanoate and 3-methyl-2-oxobutanoate in mitochondria and homogenates of rat liver and quadriceps muscle. In rat hemidiaphragms clofibric acid inhibited the oxidative decarboxylation of 4-methyl-2-oxopentanoate and had no effect on that of 3-methyl-2-oxobutanoate. Clofibric acid displaced branched-chain 2-oxo acids from bovine serum albumin. Clofibrate-treatment of rats decreased the actual activity and activity state of the branched-chain 2-oxo acid dehydrogenase complex in quadriceps muscle, and increased the total activity in heart and liver without a change of the activity state. All interactions of clofibric acid with the metabolism of branched-chain amino acids appear to relate to its structural resemblance to the branched-chain 2-oxo acids. Both reduced plasma and muscle concentrations of branched-chain amino acids and reduced muscle oxidation may play a role in the myopathic side-effects of clofibrate-treatment.

Increase of the activity state and loss of total activity of the branched-chain 2-oxo acid dehydrogenase in rat diaphragm during incubation.

Actual and total branched-chain 2-oxo acid dehydrogenase activities were determined in homogenates of incubated diaphragms from fed and starved rats. Incubation in Krebs-Ringer buffer increased the activity state, but caused considerable loss of total activity. Palmitate oxidation rates and citrate synthase activities did not significantly change on incubation. Starved muscles showed a higher extent of activation after 15 min of incubation (not after 30 and 60 min) and a smaller loss of total activity. Experiments with the transaminase inhibitor amino-oxyacetate confirm that the contribution of endogenous amino acids to the oxidation precursor pool is also smaller in diaphragms from starved rats on incubation in vitro. These phenomena together cause the higher 14CO2 production from 14C-labelled branched-chain amino acids and 2-oxo acids in muscles from starved than from fed rats. High concentrations of branched-chain 2-oxo acids, and the presence of 2-chloro-4-methyl-pentanoate, octanoate or ketone bodies, increase the extent of activation of the dehydrogenase complex; glucose and pyruvate had no effect. The observed changes of the activity state by these metabolites are discussed in relation to their interaction with branched-chain 2-oxo acid oxidation in incubated hemidiaphragms.

Effect of starvation and exercise on actual and total activity of the branched-chain 2-oxo acid dehydrogenase complex in rat tissues.

Starvation does not change the actual activity per g of tissue of the branched-chain 2-oxo acid dehydrogenase in skeletal muscles, but affects the total activity to a different extent, depending on the muscle type. The activity state (proportion of the enzyme present in the active state) does not change in diaphragm and decreases in quadriceps muscle. Liver and kidney show an increase of both activities, without a change of the activity state. In heart and brain no changes were observed. Related to organ wet weights, the actual activity present in the whole-body muscle mass decreases on starvation, whereas the activities present in liver and kidney do not change, or increase slightly. Exercise (treadmill-running) of untrained rats for 15 and 60 min causes a small increase of the actual activity and the activity state of the branched-chain 2-oxo acid dehydrogenase complex in heart and skeletal muscle. Exercise for 1 h, furthermore, increased the actual and the total activity in liver and kidney, without a change of the activity state. In brain no changes were observed. The actual activity per g of tissue in skeletal muscle was less than 2% of that in liver and kidney, both before and after exercise and starvation. Our data indicate that the degradation of branched-chain 2-oxo acids predominantly occurs in liver and to a smaller extent in kidney and skeletal muscle in fed, starved and exercised rats.

The activity state of the branched-chain 2-oxo acid dehydrogenase complex in rat tissues.

An assay is described to define the proportion of the branched-chain 2-oxo acid dehydrogenase complex that is present in the active state in rat tissues. Activities are measured in homogenates in two ways: actual activities, present in tissues, by blocking both the kinase and phosphatase of the enzyme complex during homogenization, preincubation, and incubation with 1-14C-labelled branched-chain 2-oxo acid, and total activities by blocking only the kinase during the 5 min preincubation (necessary for activation). The kinase is blocked by 5 mM-ADP and absence of Mg2+ and the phosphatase by the simultaneous presence of 50 mM-NaF. About 6% of the enzyme is active in skeletal muscle of fed rats, 7% in heart, 20% in diaphragm, 47% in kidney, 60% in brain and 98% in liver. An entirely different assay, which measures activities in crude tissue extracts before and after treatment with a broad-specificity protein phosphatase, gave similar results for heart, liver and kidney. Advantages of our assay with homogenates are the presence of intact mitochondria, the simplicity, the short duration and the high sensitivity. The actual activities measured indicate that the degradation of branched-chain 2-oxo acids predominantly occurs in liver and kidney and is limited in skeletal muscle in the fed state.

The mouse Ptprr gene encodes two protein tyrosine phosphatases, PTP-SL and PTPBR7, that display distinct patterns of expression during neural development.

The protein tyrosine phosphatases PTP-SL and PTPBR7 differ only in the length of their N-terminal domain. We show here that PTP-SL and PTPBR7 are isoforms derived from a single gene (Ptprr) through developmentally regulated use of alternative promoters. Isoform-specific reverse transcriptase-polymer chain reaction (RT-PCR) and RNA in situ hybridization experiments reveal that PTPBR7 is expressed during early embryogenesis in spinal ganglia cells as well as in developing Purkinje cells. Post-natally, PTPBR7 is expressed in various regions of the adult mouse brain, but expression in Purkinje cells has ceased and is replaced by the PTP-SL-specific transcript. In transient transfection experiments it is confirmed that PTPBR7 is a type I transmembrane protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTPase). PTP-SL, however, appears to be a cytosolic membrane-associated PTPase that is located at perinuclear vesicular structures that partly belong to the endosomal compartment. Thus, during maturation of Purkinje cells, a gene-promoter switch results in the replacement of a receptor-type PTPase by a cytosolic vesicle-associated isoform.

The mouse gene Ptprf encoding the leukocyte common antigen-related molecule LAR: cloning, characterization, and chromosomal localization.

The human receptor-like protein tyrosine phosphatase leukocyte common antigen-related molecule (LAR; gene symbol PTPRF) closely resembles cell adhesion molecules, which suggests that it may be involved in the regulation of phosphotyrosine levels through cell-cell or cell-matrix interactions. To obtain a better understanding of LAR function, we have characterized the mouse Ptprf gene as a first step toward site-directed mutagenesis studies in vitro and in vivo. The cytoplasmic region of the mouse LAR (mLAR) protein is encoded by 11 exons that span only 4.5 kb of genomic DNA. Compared to the known exon-intron structures of other mammalian receptor-like protein tyrosine phosphatase genes, such as Ptpra (encoding LRP) and Ptprc (coding for Ly-5), the Ptprf gene part encoding the cytoplasmic region of mLAR contains not only smaller, but also fewer introns. Sequence analysis of both phosphatase domains of mLAR and its homologs MPTP delta and mRPTP sigma revealed a higher evolutionary conservation of the second, C-terminal domain in comparison to the first domain. Fluorescence in situ hybridization was used to map the Ptprf gene to region C6-D1 on mouse chromosome 4.

Assignment of Ptprn2, the gene encoding receptor-type protein tyrosine phosphatase IA-2beta, a major autoantigen in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, to mouse chromosome region 12F.

The receptor-type protein tyrosine phosphatase IA-2beta gene (mouse gene symbol Ptprn2) encodes a major autoantigen in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. We physically mapped Ptprn2 by fluorescence in situ hybridization to band F of mouse chromosome 12, a region that lacks diabetes susceptibility loci. The mapping confirms the proposed synteny of mouse 12F with band q36 of human chromosome 7.

Impaired mammary gland development and function in mice lacking LAR receptor-like tyrosine phosphatase activity.

The LAR receptor-like protein tyrosine phosphatase is composed of two intracellular tyrosine phosphatase domains and a cell adhesion molecule-like extracellular region containing three immunoglubulin-like domains in combination with eight fibronectin type-III-like repeats. This architecture suggests that LAR may function in cellular signalling by the regulation of tyrosine phosphorylation through cell-cell or cell-matrix interactions. We used gene targeting in mouse embryonic stem cells to generate mice lacking sequences encoding both LAR phosphatase domains. Northern blot analysis of various tissues revealed the presence of a truncated LAR mRNA lacking the cytoplasmic tyrosine phosphatase domains and indicated that this LAR mutation is not accompanied by obvious changes in the expression levels of one of the LAR-like receptor tyrosine phosphatases PTPdelta or PTPsigma. LAR-/- mice develop and grow normally and display no appreciable histological tissue abnormalities. However, upon breeding we observed an abnormal neonatal death rate for pups from LAR-/- females. Mammary glands of LAR-/- females were incapable of delivering milk due to an impaired terminal differentiation of alveoli at late pregnancy. As a result, the glands failed to switch to a lactational state and showed a rapid involution postpartum. In wild-type mice, LAR expression is regulated during pregnancy reaching maximum levels around Day 16 of gestation. Taken together, these findings suggest an important role for LAR-mediated signalling in mammary gland development and function.