Expression and location of alpha-fetoprotein during development of rat stomach
AIM: To investigate the dynamic expression profile and localization of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) during rat stomach development. METHODS: Stomachs from Sprague-Dawley rat fetuses, young and aduh(8 weeks old) animals were used in this study. Expression levels of AFP in stomachs of different development stage were detected by reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blot. To identify the cell location of AFP in the developing rat stomachs, double-immunofluorescent staining was performed using antibodies to specific cell makers and AFP, respectively. RESULTS : The highest levels of AFP mRNA were detected in stomachs of rats at embryonic 18.5 d. Compared to embryonic 18.5 d, the AFP expression was significantly decreased during rat development(85% for embryonic 20. 5 d, P < 0. 05, 58% for postnatal 0 d, P<0.05,37% for7 d, P<0.05,24% for 14 d, P<0.05 and 11% for21 d, P<0. 05) and undetected in adult rats. Only 72 kDa isoform of AFP was detected by Western blot, the expression pattern was similar to AFP mRNA and conformed to the results of mRNA expression. The positive staining for both AFP and Vimentin was overlapped in mesenchymal cells at each stage tested. CONCLUSION : The dynamic expression of AFP in the various developmental stages of the stomachs indicates that AFP might be involved in many aspects of stomachs development. This study has demonstrated that AFP is localized in the mesenchyme of rat stomachs from the embryo to the weaning stage by immunofluorescence.
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
维普
