1. ¹Centocor, Inc., Radnor, Pennsylvania, USA
2. ²J&J Pharmaceutical Research and Development, Spring House, Pennsylvania, USA

Correspondence: Dr Michael F. Naso, 145 King of Prussia Road, Radnor, Pennsylvania 19087, USA. E-mail: mnaso@cntus.jnj.com

Received 21 June 2006; Revised 7 December 2006; Accepted 3 January 2007; Published online 22 March 2007.

Abstract

Studies performed to discover genes overexpressed in inflammatory diseases identified dermokine as being upregulated in such disease conditions. Dermokine is a gene that was first observed as expressed in the differentiated layers of skin. Its two major isoforms, and , are transcribed from different promoters of the same locus, with the isoform representing the C terminus of the isoform. Recently, additional transcript variants have been identified. Extensive in silico analysis and reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR cloning has confirmed the existence of these variants in human cells and tissues, identified a new human isoform as well as the isoform in mouse. Recombinant expression and analysis of the C-terminal truncated isoform indicate that the molecule is O-linked glycosylated and forms multimers in solution. In situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry has shown that the gene is differentially expressed in various cells and tissues, other than the skin. These results show that the dermokine gene is expressed in epithelial tissues other than the skin and this expression is transciptionally and posttranscriptionally complex.