Authors: Tao Zhang Yu Zuo Bai Da Jia Wang Hui Min Jia Zheng Wei Yuan Wei Lin Wang
Publish Date: 2009/04/22
Volume: 24, Issue: 9, Pages: 1039-1047
Abstract
As a member of the transcription factors family transcription factor 4Tcf4 is known to influence gene expression in endodermally derived tissues including lung liver pancreas stomach and intestine However it remained unknown if this capability is active during anorectal development in the normal and anorectal malformations ARM rat embryosIn this study ethylenethiourea ETUinduced ARM model was introduced to investigate the expression pattern of Tcf4 during anorectal development using immunohistochemical staining reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction RTPCR and Western blot analysisImmunostaining revealed that Tcf4 expression showed spacedependent changes in the developing anorectum in normal embryos Tcf4 protein is initially expressed in the dorsal endoderm of urorectal septum URS and hindgut on embryonic day 13 E13 Additionally separate expression domain develops intensively on the dorsal CM on E14 On E15 positive cells are then detected in the fused tissue of URS and prominently in the anal membrane In the ARM embryos however the epithelium of the cloaca URS and anorectum was negative or faint for Tcf4 In Western blot and RTPCR timedependent changes of Tcf4 protein and mRNA expression were remarkable during the anorectal development on E14 E145 and E15 the expression level reached the peak after E16 Tcf4 expression gradually decreased In contrast in ARM embryos spatiotemporal expression of Tcf4 was imbalanced during the anorectal morphogenesis from E13 to E16
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