Muc5ac mucin expression during rat skin development

FERRETI VA; SEGAL EIRAS A; BARBEITO CG; CROCE MV

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HISTOCHEMISTRY

SOC ITALIANA ISTOCHIMICA

Lugar: Pavia; Año: 2015 vol. 59 p. 22 - 27

1121-760X

Some mucin genes have been detected duringhuman embryonic and fetal organ development;however, little is known about mucinexpression in epidermal development, neitherin humans nor in other species. The presentresearch was developed to explore Muc5acskin expression during pre- and post-natal ratdevelopment. Immunohistochemistry (IHC),Western blotting (WB) and RT-PCR wereemployed. By IHC, Muc5ac protein was foundearly in embryonic epidermis from day 13 ofgestation until seven days after birth when thesurface epidermis became negative and thereaction was restricted to secreting sebumcells. In coincidence with IHC findings, WBanalysis showed a band at approximately200KDa at the same periods of development.Results were also confirmed by RT-PCR.Muc5ac expression in rat embryonic epidermissuggests that Muc5ac may play a protectiverole in embryonic skin previous to birthwhich may be replaced by pile covering. To ourknowledge, this is the first report that confirmedMuc5ac expression during skin development.