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. 2021 Jul 2;22(13):7176. doi: 10.3390/ijms22137176

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Unique upregulation profile of genes encoding for members of the Rho-GTPase family of proteins in the salivary glands of C57BL/6.NOD-Aec1Aec2 mice. Rho-GTPase family proteins are important in regulating the cellular homeostasis of the GTP<>GDP system. The Rho-GTPase family consists of 21 members, of which 16 are divided among 5 subfamilies (Rsf1, Rsf2, Rsf3, Rsf4 and Rsf5), with 5 unassigned (designated Rsfx here). For cells in the non-activated state, Rho-GTP molecules are mostly associated with cellular membranes, but during cell activation the molecules dissociate to the cytoplasm by an as-yet unknown mechanism. In the salivary glands of C57BL/6.NOD-Aec1Aec2 mice, genes encoding for Rhoc, Rhou, Cdc42, Rac3, and Rnd1 are upregulated starting at 8 weeks of age, with Rac2 and Rhobtb1 upregulated starting at 16 weeks of age (lower panel). In contrast, the salivary glands of C57BL/6J mice showed a weak upregulated expression for Rnd1, Rnd2, Rhobtb3, Rhoh, Rhof and Rhov at 8 weeks of age, but this was not prolonged.