Human fibrinogen-related protein-1/liver fibrinogen-related protein-1 (HFREP-1/LFIRE-1), a liver-specificprotein, is a member of fibrinogen superfamily that exerts various biological activities. However, the func-tion of HFREP-1/LFIRE-1 in liver remains unknown. Here we isolated its mouse ortholog gene-mousefibrinogen-related protein-1 (mfrep-1), which encoded 314 amino acids, exhibiting 80.4% similarity toHFREP-1/LFIRE-1. Northern blot analysis revealed that 1.2-kb mfrep-1 mRNA was detected selectivelyin mouse liver. To explore the function of MFREP-1, we examined the levels of mfrep-1 mRNA duringregeneration after 70% partial hepatectomy (PHx) in mice. mfrep-1 mRNA increased in the regeneratingliver and reached the first shoulder peak at 2-4 h after PHx. Cycloheximide pretreatment could suppress theinduction of mfrep-1, indicating the up-regulation of this gene need de novo protein synthesis. Its mRNAcontinued to elevate at 6 h thereafter and reached the second peak at 24 h. The enhanced expression ofmfrep-1 maintained high until 72 h and then declined slowly to the basal level. Immunohistochemistryassessment confirmed the up-regulated expression of MFREP-1 protein in parenchymal cells during liverregeneration. These data suggested that MFREP-1 might play an important role in liver regeneration andbe involved in the regulation of cell growth.
When added with cytochrome c, Xenopus laevis egg extract XS-150 can induce exogenous nuclei undergoing apoptosis. Apoptosis specific DNase XAD was activated during this process, and cut chromatin between nucleosome, leading to DNA Ladder in electrophoresis. Our results showed that an inhibitor of XAD, IXAD, exists abundantly in normal egg extract, its molecular weight is about 40 ku. Normally, IXAD exists either in the form of dimmer or in complex with XAD. It was degraded during apoptosis, releasing active XAD. The results of Western assay and cross-inhibition showed that IXAD was likely homologous to DFF45 in structure and function. At the same time, these results also indicated that the pathway in apoptosis was conserved in evolution.
DNA degradation is a biochemical hallmark in apoptosis. It has been demonstrated in many cell types that there are two stages of DNA fragmentation during the apoptotic execution. In the early stage, chromatin DNA is cut into large molecular weight DNA fragments, although the responsible nuclease(s) has not been recognized. In the late stage, the chromatin DNA is cleaved further into short oligonucleosomal fragments by a well-characterized nuclease in apoptosis,the caspase-activated DNase (CAD/DFF40). In this study, we demonstrate that large molecular weight DNA fragmentation also occurs in Xenopus egg extracts in apoptosis. We show that the large molecular weight DNA fragmentation factor (LDFF) is not the Xenopus CAD homolog XCAD. LDFF is activated by caspase-3. The large molecular weight DNA fragmentation activity of LDFF is Mg2+-dependent and Ca2+-independent, can occur in both acidic and neutral pH conditions and can tolerate 45℃ treatment. These results indicate that LDFF in Xenopus egg extracts might be a new DNase (or DNases) responsible for the large DNA fragmentation.
