Abstract
N-Acetyltransferases (NATs) play an important role in the biotransformation of a wide variety of arylamine drugs and carcinogens. Two genes (NAT1, NAT2) have been identified and allelic variation in NAT2 has been associated with arylamine toxicity in adults. Little information has been reported on expression of NAT genes during embryonic and fetal development although substrate specific NAT activity has been detected. The current study investigated the expression of NAT1and NAT2 in mice pre-and postnatally. RNA was isolated from maternal liver, embryonic tissue at gestational days (GD) 10, 15, and 18, or neonates at neonatal day 3. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was performed using primers designed to amplify portions of either the NAT1 or the NAT2 gene.NAT1 and NAT2 mRNAs were detected in the embryo/placental complex at GD 10 and in GD 15 and 18 embryos.NAT2 but not NAT1 was expressed in GD 18 and neonatal day 3 hepatic tissue. These data demonstrate the differential expression of NAT genes in the mouse embryo and suggest a potential role for NAT in development.
Footnotes
-
Send reprint requests to: Dr. Charlene A. McQueen, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, The University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210207, Tucson, AZ 85721. E-mail:mcqueen{at}pharmacy.arizona.edu
-
↵1 Current address: American Cyanamid, P.O. Box 400, Princeton, NJ 08543.
-
Studies were supported by the Arizona Disease Control Research Commission and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center Grant P30ES06694. Portions of this work were presented at the Society of Toxicology 1997 meeting and submitted as partial fulfillment for a Ph.D. (M.K.M.).
- Abbreviations used are::
- NAT
- N-acetyltransferase
- GD
- gestational day
- ND
- neonatal day
- PABA
- p-aminobenzoic acid
- RT-PCR
- reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction
- Received July 22, 1998.
- Accepted November 4, 1998.
- The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
DMD articles become freely available 12 months after publication, and remain freely available for 5 years.Non-open access articles that fall outside this five year window are available only to institutional subscribers and current ASPET members, or through the article purchase feature at the bottom of the page.
|