Originally published as JHC exPRESS on November 12, 2007. doi:10.1369/jhc.7A7323.2007
Volume 56 (2): 175-182, 2008 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Differential Expression Patterns of NDRG Family Proteins in the Central Nervous System
National Cardiovascular Center Research Institute, Osaka, Japan Correspondence to: Toshiyuki Miyata, PhD, National Cardiovascular Center Research Institute, 5-7-1 Fujishirodai, Suita, Osaka 565-8565, Japan. E-mail: miyata{at}ri.ncvc.go.jp
The N-myc downstream-regulated gene (NDRG) family consists of four proteins: NDRG1, NDRG2, NDRG3, and NDRG4 in mammals. NDRG1 has been thoroughly studied as an intracellular protein associated with stress response, cell growth, and differentiation. A nonsense mutation in the NDRG1 gene causes hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy, Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease type 4D. We previously generated Ndrg1-deficient mice and found that they exhibited peripheral nerve degeneration caused by severe demyelination, but that the complicated motor abilities were retained. These results implied that other NDRG family proteins may compensate for the NDRG1 deficiency in the central nervous system. In this study we raised specific antibodies against each member of the NDRG protein family and examined their cellular expression patterns in the mouse brain. In the cerebrum, NDRG1 and NDRG2 were localized in oligodendrocytes and astrocytes, respectively, whereas NDRG3 and NDRG4 were ubiquitous. In the cerebellum, NDRG1 and NDRG4 were localized in Purkinje cells and NDRG2 in Bergmann glial cells. NDRG3 was detected in the nuclei in most cells. These expression patterns demonstrated the cell type-specific and ubiquitous localization of the NDRG family proteins. Each NDRG may play a partially redundant role in specific cells in the brain. (J Histochem Cytochem 56:175–182, 2008)
Key Words: NDRG1 NDRG2 NDRG3 NDRG4 brain Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease oligodendrocyte astrocyte immunohistochemistry
THE N-myc downstream-regulated gene (NDRG) family consists of four proteins: NDRG1, NDRG2, NDRG3, and NDRG4 in mammals. They are intracellular proteins of 340 to 394 amino acids and share 53 to 65% sequence identities to each other (Okuda and Kondoh 1999
NDRG1 is the gene responsible for Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease type 4D (CMT4D), also called hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy-Lom (Kalaydjieva et al. 1996
To clarify the physiological roles of NDRG1, we generated Ndrg1-deficient mice and analyzed their phenotypes (Okuda et al. 2004
Transcripts of NDRG1, NDRG2, NDRG3, and NDRG4 have been detected in the brain (Zhou et al. 2001
Animals Adult male mice (C57BL/6 Cr Slc) aged 8 to 12 weeks (Japan SLC Inc.; Hamamatsu, Japan) were used in this study. Adult or 4-week-old Ndrg1-deficient male mice (Okuda et al. 2004
Antibodies and Vectors Expression vectors for the green fluorescent protein (GFP)-fusion proteins of mouse NDRG1, NDRG2, NDRG3, and NDRG4 were constructed with the pEGFP-N1 vector (Clontech; Mountain View, CA). COS-1 cells were transfected with these vectors using the FuGENE6 transfection reagent (Roche Diagnostics; Indianapolis, IN). Two days later, cells were collected and lysed with lysis buffer (10 mM Tris–HCl, 2 mM EDTA, 50 mM dithiothreitol, 2% SDS, 6% glycerol, pH 6.8).
Western Blotting Analysis
Histological Analyses
Raising Specific Antibodies Against the NDRG Family Proteins We previously raised antibodies against human NDRG1 and NDRG4 (Agarwala et al. 2000
Using these antibodies, we detected all the NDRG family proteins in the brain of wild-type mice aged 4 and 12 weeks (Figure 2 ). Expression amounts of NDRG2, NDRG3, and NDRG4 proteins were not affected in the brain of Ndrg1-deficient mice, suggesting that the loss of NDRG1 did not affect expression levels of the other NDRGs (Figure 2).
Histological Assessment of the Brain of Ndrg1-deficient Mice We previously reported the phenotypes of Ndrg1-deficient mice (Okuda et al. 2004
Expression Patterns of NDRGs in the Brain To investigate the expression characteristics of NDRGs in the brain, we performed immunohistochemical analysis using the antibodies specific for each NDRG. First, NDRG1 was strongly detected in the cytoplasm of oligodendrocytes in the cerebrum (Figure 4A ). Specific expression of NDRG1 in the oligodendrocytes was confirmed by double staining for NDRG1 and CNPase. CNPase is a marker for oligodendrocytes (Figures 4C–4E). Although the cytoplasm was a principal site of NDRG1 localization, a fibrous staining pattern was also detected, suggesting that NDRG1 was partially localized in the processes of oligodendrocytes. In addition to the oligodendrocyte localization, weaker staining of NDRG1 was detected in Purkinje cells of the cerebellum (Figure 4B). NDRG1 was also strongly expressed in ependymal cells in the cerebrum (data not shown).
NDRG2 was strongly detected in the astrocytes of the cerebrum (Figure 5A ), which was confirmed by double staining for NDRG2 and GFAP (Figures 5C–5E). GFAP is a commonly used marker for astrocytes. In the cerebellum, NDRG2 was also detected in Bergmann glial cells (Figure 5B). In both the cerebrum and cerebellum, NDRG2 was moderately expressed in most cells except neurons in the cerebral cortex and in Purkinje cells in the cerebellum (Figures 5A and 5B). Double staining for NDRG2 and NeuN indicated that NeuN-positive cells were NDRG2 negative in the cerebrum (Figures 5F–5H). NeuN is a marker for neurons. NDRG2 was less expressed in oligodendrocytes (data not shown). In the presence of immunogen peptides, anti-NDRG2 antibody did not give any signals (data not shown).
In contrast to the cytoplasmic localization of NDRG1 and NDRG2, expression of NDRG3 was observed in the nuclei of most cells in the cerebrum (Figure 6A ). Nuclear localization of NDRG3 was also observed in other tissues (data not shown). Expression of NDRG3 was relatively strong in the neurons because most of the strong NDRG3-positive cells were NeuN-positive neurons (Figures 6C–6E). Significant expression of NDRG3 was also seen in the nuclei of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum, with less expression in the granule cells (Figure 6B). In the presence of immunogen peptides, anti-NDRG3 antibody did not give any signals (data not shown).
Expression of NDRG4 was detected in most brain cells, especially in the neurons of the cerebrum (Figure 7A , arrowhead) and Purkinje cells of the cerebellum (Figure 7B, open arrowhead). NDRG4-positive cells corresponded to cells expressing a neuron marker NeuN (Figures 7C–7E). NDRG4 was dominantly localized in the cytoplasm of these cells. Cytoplasmic localization of NDRG4 in Purkinje cells (Figure 7B) was similar to that of NDRG1 (Figure 4B). NDRG4 was less expressed in granule cells (Figure 7B) like NDRG1 (Figure 4B).
Although NDRG1 is essential for structural and functional maintenance of myelin sheaths in the peripheral nervous system (PNS) (Okuda et al. 2004
Antibody specificity was examined by Western blotting analysis using recombinant NDRG–GFP fusion proteins. Each antibody specifically reacted with the corresponding protein, although the anti-NDRG1 antibody exhibited a weak cross-reaction to NDRG3 (Figure 1). This may be caused by a relatively high identity of NDRG3 to NDRG1 in amino acid sequence compared with NDRG2 and NDRG4. Immunohistochemical analysis, however, could fortunately discriminate NDRG1 from NDRG3: anti-NDRG1 showed a cytoplasmic staining pattern in particular cells, whereas anti-NDRG3 reacted with the nuclei in most cells of the brain.
We demonstrated here that NDRG1 was mainly localized in the oligodendrocytes (Figure 4). Another group (Wakisaka et al. 2003
The oligodendrocyte is a glial cell engaged in the formation of myelin sheaths in the CNS, whereas the Schwann cell expressing NDRG1 plays an analogous role in the PNS. NDRG1, therefore, may contribute to cellular processes in the development or maintenance of myelin sheaths. Although the loss of NDRG1 in Schwann cells led to demyelination in the sciatic nerves (Okuda et al. 2004
NDRG2 was localized to the astrocytes in the cerebrum and to Bergmann glial cells in the cerebellum (Figure 5). NDRG3 was expressed in most cells in the cerebrum and cerebellum, and the subcellular localization of NDRG3 was restricted in the nucleus (Figure 6). These marked differences from NDRG1 in the cellular and subcellular localization suggested that NDRG2 and NDRG3 may not have a redundant function of NDRG1. In fact, NDRG2 and NDRG3 were unable to compensate for the NDRG1 deficiency in sciatic nerves despite their expression in the tissue (Okuda et al. 2004
In contrast to NDRG2 and NDRG3, NDRG4 may be a likely candidate of compensators for the NDRG1 deficiency in the brain. NDRG4 was abundantly expressed in the brain, especially in the neurons and Purkinje cells (Figure 7), the latter of which were also rich in NDRG1. NDRG1 was originally identified as a gene upregulated with homocysteine treatment (Kokame et al. 1996
This work was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare of Japan; the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan; and the Program for the Promotion of Fundamental Studies in Health Sciences of the National Institute of Biomedical Innovation (NIBIO).
Received for publication July 24, 2007; accepted October 22, 2007
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