Unbound MEDLINE

Systematic expression analysis and antibody screening do not support the existence of naturally occurring PR-C, PR-M or other truncated progesterone receptor isoforms. Endocrinology [Endocrinology] Journal article

 
TitleSystematic expression analysis and antibody screening do not support the existence of naturally occurring PR-C, PR-M or other truncated progesterone receptor isoforms.
Author(s)Samalecos A, Gellersen B 
InstitutionEndokrinologikum Hamburg, 20251 Hamburg, Germany.
SourceEndocrinology 2008 Jul 10.
AbstractFunctional progesterone withdrawal associated with human parturition has been ascribed to various mechanisms modulating the function of the classical progesterone receptors, PR-B and PR-A, in utero. These include upregulation of the inhibitory PR-C isoform, described as a 60 kDa protein arising from translation initiation at codon 595. Our initial attempts to detect PR-C yielded uninterpretable results. To systematically validate antibodies for immunodetection of PR isoforms, we generated expression vectors for PR variants originating from putative start codons AUG-289, -301, -595, -632 and -692 in addition to those for PR-B and PR-A, and for alternative splice variants PR-T, PR-S and PR-M. All constructs were subjected to in vitro and in vivo translation and immunoblotting with a panel of 13 PR antibodies. While antibodies raised against full-length PR were generally not capable of detecting N-terminally truncated forms, C-terminal antibodies did not or only weakly react with PR-B and PR-A but produced prominent non-specific signals. Thus, immunodetection of N-terminally truncated PR isoforms is prone to artifacts. Proteins of about 64 kDa were expressed from PR-289 and -301, but no corresponding endogenous forms were observed. PR-T, PR-S and PR-M cDNAs yielded no detectable translation products. No protein was translated from AUG-595 in our PR-C expression vector unless a Kozak sequence was introduced, and the product was not 60 but 38 kDa in size. Thus, the 60 kDa protein called PR-C does not originate from AUG-595 and is not a naturally occurring PR isoform.
LanguageENG
Pub Type(s)JOURNAL ARTICLE
PubMed ID18617611
  
Advertise on this site.