Tissue specificity and variability of imprinted IGF2 expression in humans

Journal Article · Thu Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994 · American Journal of Human Genetics

OSTI ID:134620

Giannoukakis, N; Rouleau, G; Polychronakos, C ^[1]

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1. McGill Univ., Quebec (Canada)

Parental genomic imprinting refers to the phenomenon where expression of a gene copy depends on the sex of the parent from which it is derived. The human insulin-like growth factor II gene, IGF2, is parentally imprinted with the paternal gene copy exclusively expressed in fetal and term placenta as well as in fetal kidney. In mice, imprinted IGF2 expression is tissue-specific. In a preliminary approach to investigate tissue-specific IGF2 imprinting in humans, we evaluated allele-specific expression in four samples of umbilical cord blood leukocytes of fetuses found to imprint IGF2 in placenta. IGF2 mRNA transcripts from the gene copy transmitted from each parent were distinguished using a transcribed ApaI polymorphism by performing reverse transcription-PCR on total RNA from cord blood leukocytes. Postnatal peripheral blood was examined using the same method. Of 77 informative individuals, 68 expressed both IGF2 copies, but 9 individuals showed unambiguous monoallelic expression. Two individuals from each category were screened again and the results were identical. These data indicate that imprinted IGF2 expression is tissue-specific and show variability of IGF2 imprinting among individuals. This variability may be genetic. We are in the process of screening large pedigrees to test this hypothesis.

• OSTI ID: 134620
• Report Number(s): CONF-941009--
• Journal Information: American Journal of Human Genetics, Journal Name: American Journal of Human Genetics Journal Issue: Suppl.3 Vol. 55; ISSN AJHGAG; ISSN 0002-9297
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

55 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
BASIC STUDIES
GENE REGULATION
GENES
GENETIC VARIABILITY
GENETICS
GROWTH FACTORS
LEUKOCYTES
MESSENGER-RNA
MICE
PLACENTA
POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION
SEX DEPENDENCE
TISSUE DISTRIBUTION
TRANSCRIPTION