Molecular characterization of the mouse Tem1/endosialin gene regulated by cell density in vitro and expressed in normal tissues in vivo

• Published in: The Journal of biological chemistry 2001-10, Vol.276 (42), p.38795-38807
• Main Authors: Opavsky, R, Haviernik, P, Jurkovicova, D, Garin, M T, Copeland, N G, Gilbert, D J, Jenkins, N A, Bies, J, Garfield, S, Pastorekova, S, Oue, A, Wolff, L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 3T3 Cells; Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Antigens, CD; Antigens, Neoplasm; Base Sequence; Blotting, Northern; Blotting, Southern; Blotting, Western; Cell Division; Cell Line; Cells, Cultured; chromosome 19; Chromosome Mapping; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 19; Corpus Luteum - metabolism; Crosses, Genetic; DNA, Complementary - metabolism; endosialin; Endothelium, Vascular - cytology; Female; Gene Library; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; In Situ Hybridization; Introns; Luciferases - metabolism; Membrane Proteins - biosynthesis; Membrane Proteins - genetics; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Microscopy, Confocal; Microscopy, Fluorescence; Models, Genetic; Molecular Sequence Data; Neoplasm Proteins - biosynthesis; Neoplasm Proteins - genetics; Promoter Regions, Genetic; Protein Binding; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Tissue Distribution; Transcription, Genetic; tumor endothelial marker 1; Up-Regulation
• ISSN: 0021-9258
• DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M105241200

Human tumor endothelial marker 1/endosialin (TEM1/endosialin) was recently identified as a novel tumor endothelial cell surface marker potentially involved in angiogenesis, although no specific function for this novel gene has been assigned so far. It was reported to be expressed in tumor endothelium but not in normal endothelium with the exception of perhaps the corpus luteum. Here we describe the cDNA and genomic sequences for the mouse Tem1/endosialin homolog, the identification and characterization of its promoter region, and an extensive characterization of its expression pattern in murine and human tissues and murine cell lines in vitro. The single copy gene that was mapped to chromosome 19 is intronless and encodes a 92-kDa protein that has 77.5% overall homology to the human protein. The remarkable findings are 1) this gene is ubiquitously expressed in normal human and mouse somatic tissues and during development, and 2) its expression at the mRNA level is density-dependent and up-regulated in serum-starved cells. In vitro, its expression is limited to cells of embryonic, endothelial, and preadipocyte origin, suggesting that the wide distribution of its expression in vivo is due to the presence of vascular endothelial cells in all the tissues. The ubiquitous expression in vivo is in contrast to previously reported expression limited to corpus luteum and highly angiogenic tissues such as tumors and wound tissue.