XRASGRP2 expression during early development of Xenopus embryos
- 作者：Kentaro Nagamine ; Akira Matsuda ; Makoto Asashima ; Takamitsu Hori
- 关键词：Activin ; Angiopoietin ; RASGRP2 ; Vascular endothelial cell ; Angiogenesis ; Blood ; GTPase ; CalDAG-GEFI ; Ras ; Rap
- 刊名：Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
- 出版年：2008
- 期刊代码：159_0006291x
- 类别：bio
- 出版时间：8 August 2008
- 卷：372
- 期：4
- 页码：886-891
- 文件大小：554 K
摘要
Previously, we described the DNA microarray screening of vascular endothelial cells that were formed by treatment of aggregates prepared from Xenopus animal cap cells with activin and angiopoietin-2. One of the genes identified in this screening showed homology to human RASGRP2 which plays a role in the regulation of GTP-GDP exchange of the Ras and Rap proteins, and was named XRASGRP2. In the present study, we analyzed the expression pattern of xrasgrp2 during Xenopus embryogenesis. The xrasgrp2 mRNA was expressed after stage 24, as assessed by stage PCR analysis. Whole-mount in situ hybridization showed that xrasgrp2 mRNA was located in the vascular region of the embryo. Loss-of-function analysis revealed that the formation of blood and endothelial cells in the explants transplanted into Xenopus embryos was inhibited by antisense morpholino oligonucleotides that block xrasgrp2 translation. These results suggest that XRASGRP2 plays a role in angiogenesis in Xenopus embryos.