Elsevier

Developmental Biology

Volume 192, Issue 2, 15 December 1997, Pages 247-257
Developmental Biology

Regular Article
HNF-6 Is Expressed in Endoderm Derivatives and Nervous System of the Mouse Embryo and Participates to the Cross-Regulatory Network of Liver-Enriched Transcription Factors

https://doi.org/10.1006/dbio.1997.8757Get rights and content
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Abstract

Hepatocyte nuclear factor-6 (HNF-6) is a liver-enriched transcription factor that contains a single cut domain and a novel type of homeodomain. Here we have studied the developmental expression pattern of HNF-6 in the mouse.In situhybridization experiments showed that HNF-6 mRNA is detected in the liver at embryonic day (E) 9, at the onset of liver differentiation. HNF-6 mRNA disappeared transiently from the liver between E12.5 and E15. In transfection experiments HNF-6 stimulated the expression of HNF-4 and of HNF-3β, two transcription factors known to be involved in liver development and differentiation. HNF-6 was detected in the pancreas from E10.5 onward, where it was restricted to the exocrine cells. HNF-6 was also detected in the developing nervous system. Both the brain and the spinal cord started to express HNF-6 at E9–9.5 in postmitotic neuroblasts. Later on, HNF-6 was restricted to brain nuclei, to the retina, to the ventral horn of the spinal cord, and to dorsal root ganglia. Our observations that HNF-6 contributes to the control of the expression of transcription factors and is expressed at early stages of liver, pancreas, and neuronal differentiation suggest that HNF-6 regulates several developmental programs.

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S. KlugR. Thiel, Eds.

1

To whom correspondence should be addressed at Hormone and Metabolic Research Unit, UCL/ICP, 75 Avenue Hippocrate, Box 7529, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium. Fax: 32-2-762 7455. E-mail: [email protected].