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Elevated proα2(I) collagen mRNA levels in cultured scleroderma fibroblasts result from an increased transcription rate of the corresponding gene
Author(s) -
Kähäri Veli-Matti,
Multimäki Petteri,
Vuorio Eero
Publication year - 1987
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(87)80172-2
Subject(s) - transcription (linguistics) , messenger rna , gene , scleroderma (fungus) , chemistry , gene expression , microbiology and biotechnology , fibroblast , biology , immunology , biochemistry , in vitro , inoculation , philosophy , linguistics
Fibroblasts cultured from affected and unattected skin sites of three scleroderma patients were studied for the activation of type I collagen gene expression. Dot blot hybridizations with proα2(I) collagen specific cDNA probe revealed 2.9–4.8‐fold increases in proα2(I) mRNA levels in the affected fibroblasts over the unaffected control cells. Transcription rate of the proα2(I) gene in the nuclei isolated from the same cells was 2.0–3.7‐fold higher in the scleroderma fibroblasts than in the controls. The results show that scleroderma fibroblasts have undergone activation of collagen gene expression at the transcriptional level, which subsequently results in elevated procollagen mRNA levels, overproduction of collagen, and development of dermal fibrosis.