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Expression of Liver X Receptor in Rat Fetal Tissues at Different Developmental Stages

Azusa Sakamoto, Takashi Kawasaki, Toshihiro Kazawa, Riuko Ohashi, Shuying Jiang, Takashi Maejima, Toshiya Tanaka, Hiroko Iwanari, Takao Hamakubo, Juro Sakai, Tatsuhiko Kodama and Makoto Naito

Division of Cellular and Molecular Pathology, Department of Cellular Function, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan (AS,TKawasaki,TKazawa,RO,SJ,MN); Perseus Proteomics, Inc., Tokyo, Japan (SJ,HI); and Laboratory for Systems Biology and Medicine, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (TM,TT,TH,JS,TKodama)

Correspondence to: Makoto Naito, MD, PhD, Division of Cellular and Molecular Pathology, Department of Cellular Function, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Asahimachi-dori 1-757, 951-8510, Niigata, Japan. E-mail: mnaito{at}med.niigata-u.ac.jp

The liver X receptor (LXR) is a nuclear receptor that acts as a sterol sensor and metabolic regulator of cholesterol and lipid homeostasis. Using a novel LXR-specific antibody for immunohistochemistry, we evaluated cellular expression of LXR in fetal rat tissues. In the fetal liver, LXR-positive macrophages appeared at 12 days and their number peaked at 18 days of gestation. In contrast, hepatocytes expressed LXR during the later stage of gestation, suggesting the functional development of the liver during ontogeny. Later, macrophages in spleen and thymus expressed LXR, and some mononuclear cells in the vascular lumen compatible to primitive/fetal macrophages in the fetal circulation were found to express LXR. In vitro, rat monocytes did not express LXR, but monocyte-derived macrophages cultured in the presence of macrophage-colony stimulating factor revealed the distinct expression of LXR in nucleoli. These findings suggest that LXR plays a role in the differentiation of fetal macrophages, particularly hepatic macrophages, in rat development. (J Histochem Cytochem 55:641–649, 2007)

Key Words: LXR • development • liver • macrophage • rat • nucleoli

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