TY  - JOUR
TI  - Expression of galectin-7 during epithelial development coincides with the onset of stratification.
AU  - Timmons, P M
AU  - Colnot, C
AU  - Cail, I
AU  - Poirier, F
AU  - Magnaldo, T
T2  - The International Journal of Developmental Biology
AB  - Galectin-7 is a 14 KDa member of the galectin family that we have cloned from human, rat and mouse. Our previous studies have shown that in the adult, galectin-7 is expressed in all cell layers of epidermis and of other stratified epithelia such asthe cornea and the lining of the oesophagus. This suggested that galectin-7 expression might be induced at a particular stage in the embryonic development of stratified epithelia. In the present study we have investigated this hypothesis by in situ hybridization of galectin-7 mRNA in mouse embryos. Starting from E13.5, weak expression of galectin-7 was detected in bilayered ectoderm, and stronger expression was found in areas of embryonic epidermis where stratification was more advanced. Galectin-7 expression was maintained in all living layers after epidermal development was completed. Galectin-7 was also strongly and specifically expressed in stratified regions of ectodermally-derived non-epidermal epithelia such as the lining of the buccal cavity, the oesophagus and the ano-rectal region. In contrast, no expression of galectin-7 was found in epithelia derived from endoderm, such as lining of the intestine, kidney and lung. Our results demonstrate that galectin-7 is expressed in all stratified epithelia examined so far, and that the onset of its expression coincides with the first visible signs of stratification. These results establish galectin-7 as the first region-independent marker of epithelial stratification.
PY  - 1999
VL  - 43
IS  - 3
SP  - 229
EP  - 235
J2  - Int. J. Dev. Biol.
LA  - en
SN  - 0214-6282
SN  - 1696-3547
UR  - https://ijdb.ehu.eus/article/10410902
Y2  - 2024/11/06/00:21:20
ER  -