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Developmental and regional changes of cholecystokinin mRNA in rat brains
Author(s) -
Hasegawa Makoto,
Usui Hiroshi,
Araki Kazuaki,
Kuwano Ryozo,
Takahashi Yasuo
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(86)80089-8
Subject(s) - cholecystokinin , northern blot , messenger rna , complementary dna , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , striatum , dot blot , gene expression , precursor mrna , in situ hybridization , rna , endocrinology , medicine , gene , biochemistry , receptor , dopamine , rna splicing
Since the nucleotide sequence of cholecystokinin (CCK) cDNA was found in the rat gene, we applied cDNA to quantitate the CCK mRNA. The size of the mRNA for a CCK precursor was 850 nucleotides in length using brain cytoplasmic RNA. There were no bands except CCK mRNA by Northern blot analysis. We also examined the developmental changes and regional distribution of CCK mRNA in rat brains by dot‐blot and gel‐blot hybridization using CCK cDNA as a probe. CCK mRNA was barely detectable in the fetal brain, but started to increase postnatally and attained the plateau level after 20–30 days. Further, the level of CCK mRNA was highest in the frontal cortex, followed by those of the hippocampus and striatum. The cerebellum contained only negligible CCK mRNA. These results are in agreement with those of CCK concentration in the corresponding brain areas and suggest a transcriptional control of CCK concentration.