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. 1989 Jun;83(6):1985–1991. doi: 10.1172/JCI114108

Characterization and histologic localization of human growth hormone-variant gene expression in the placenta.

S A Liebhaber 1, M Urbanek 1, J Ray 1, R S Tuan 1, N E Cooke 1
PMCID: PMC303922  PMID: 2723069

Abstract

The human growth hormone-variant (hGH-V) gene is one of five highly similar growth hormone-related genes clustered on the short arm of chromosome 17. Although the pattern of expression of the adjacent normal growth hormone (hGH-N) and chorionic somatomammotropin (hCS) genes in this cluster are well characterized, the expression of the hGH-V gene remains to be defined. In previous studies, we have demonstrated that the hGH-V gene is transcribed in the term placenta and expressed as two alternatively spliced mRNAs: one is predicted to encode a 22-kD hormone (hGH-V), the other retains intron 4 in its sequence resulting in the predicted synthesis of a novel 26-kD hGH-V-related protein (hGH-V2). In the present report, we document the expression of both of these hGH-V mRNA species in the villi of the term placenta, demonstrate an increase in their concentrations during gestation, and directly sublocalize hGH-V gene expression to the syncytiotrophoblastic epithelium of the term placenta by in situ cDNA-mRNA histohybridization. The demonstrated similarity in the developmental and tissue-specific expression of the hGH-V gene with that of the related hCS gene suggests that these two genes may share common regulatory elements.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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