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Alternatively spliced transcripts of the thymus-specific protease PRSS16 are differentially expressed in human thymus

Genes & Immunity volume 6, pages 1–7 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

The putative serine protease PRSS16 is abundantly expressed in the thymic cortex and the gene is encoded within the HLA I complex. Although its function is not yet defined, the very restricted expression points to a role in T-cell development in the thymus. In this study, we show that the PRSS16 mRNA is alternatively spliced to generate at least five transcripts. Apart from the full-length sequence, we found two other isoforms with all putative active site residues of the serine protease, suggesting that those variants may also be functional. Semi-quantitative analysis of the splice variants in different tissue samples revealed a strong correlation between the specific formation of alternatively spliced PRSS16 transcripts and the age and thymus pathology status of the donor. Newborn thymi express mostly the PRSS16-4 and -5 isoforms and lack the PRSS16-1 transcript, which appears around 2 years of age and stays until adulthood. Incidentally, thymi from myasthenia gravis (MG) patients with thymoma showed a marked decrease in the expression of the full-length PRSS16-1 and increased expression of the smaller isoforms. The data suggest a potential role of the PRSS16 isoforms in the postnatal morphogenesis of the thymus and in the thymus pathology related to MG.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the DFG/SFB 510/D1 (AM, ET), the Association Francaise contre les Myopathies (ET, AM), the fortüne programm of the University of Tübingen, Hertie-Stiftung and the European Union EU-QRLT-2000-01918. We would like to thank C Bowlus for the PRSS16 cDNA and Alex Marx (Würzburg, Germany) for providing control thymomas.

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Author notes

  1. C Luther and W Wienhold: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Neurology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University Hospital, Tübingen, Germany

    C Luther, W Wienhold, A Melms & E Tolosa

  2. Applied Biosystems, Applera Deutschland GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany

    R Oehlmann

  3. Department of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Mainz University Hospital, Mainz, Germany

    M K Heinemann

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  1. C Luther
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Correspondence to E Tolosa.

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Luther, C., Wienhold, W., Oehlmann, R. et al. Alternatively spliced transcripts of the thymus-specific protease PRSS16 are differentially expressed in human thymus. Genes Immun 6, 1–7 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.gene.6364142

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