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Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry, Vol. 46, 661-668, May 1998, Copyright © 1998, The Histochemical Society, Inc.

ARTICLE

Peptide-amidating Enzymes Are Expressed in the Stellate Epithelial Cells of the Thymic Medulla

Alfredo Martíneza, Andrew Farrb, Michele D. Vos, Frank Cuttittaa, and Anthony M. Treston
a Cell and Cancer Biology Department, Division of Clinical Sciences, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, Maryland
b Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Correspondence to: Alfredo Martínez, Cell and Cancer Biology Dept., NCI, NIH, 9610 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850-3300.

C-terminal amidation is a post-translational processing step necessary to convey biological activity to a large number of regulatory peptides. In this study we have demonstrated that the peptidyl-glycine {alpha}-amidating monooxygenase enzyme complex (PAM) responsible for this activity is located in the medullary stellate epithelial cells of the thymus and in cultured epithelial cells bearing a medullary phenotype, using Northern blot, immunocytochemistry, in situ hybridization, and enzyme assays. Immunocytochemical localization revealed a granular pattern in the cytoplasm of the stellate cells, which were also positive for cytokeratins and a B-lymphocyte-associated antigen. The presence of PAM activity in medium conditioned by thymic epithelial cell lines suggests that PAM is a secreted product of these cells. Among the four epithelial cell lines examined, there was a direct correlation between PAM activity and content of oxytocin, an amidated peptide. Taken together, these data provide convincing evidence that thymic epithelial cells have the capacity to generate amidated peptides that may influence T-cell differentiation and suggest that the amidating enzymes could play an important role in the regulation of thymic physiology. (J Histochem Cytochem 46:661–668, 1998)

Key Words: thymus, stellate epithelial cells, amidation, oxytocin, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, enzyme assays


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A. G. Farr and A. Rudensky
Medullary Thymic Epithelium: A Mosaic of Epithelial "Self"?
J. Exp. Med., July 1, 1998; 188(1): 1 - 4.
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