Restricted, but abundant, expression of the novel rat gene‐3 (R3) relaxin in the dorsal tegmental region of brain

• Published in: Journal of neurochemistry Vol. 82; no. 6; pp. 1553 - 1557
• Main Authors: Burazin, Tanya C. D., Bathgate, Ross A. D., Macris, Mary, Layfield, Sharon, Gundlach, Andrew L., Tregear, Geoffrey W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01.09.2002; Blackwell
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Autoradiography; Base Sequence; Binding Sites; Biochemistry and metabolism; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - metabolism; Central nervous system; cloning; Cloning, Molecular; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; In Situ Hybridization; in situ hybridization histochemistry; Male; Mice; Molecular Sequence Data; Nerve Tissue Proteins - genetics; Nerve Tissue Proteins - metabolism; pons; Pons - metabolism; Rats; relaxin; Relaxin - genetics; Relaxin - metabolism; RNA, Messenger - biosynthesis; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Tegmentum Mesencephali - metabolism; ventromedial dorsal tegmental nucleus; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Rat; Rodentia; Central nervous system; Peptide hormone; Tegmental nucleus; Gene expression; Relaxin; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Gene; Distribution; Pons varolii; Brain (vertebrata)
• ISSN: 0022-3042; 1471-4159
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1471-4159.2002.01114.x

Relaxin is a peptide hormone with known actions associated with female reproductive physiology, but it has also been identified in the brain. Only one relaxin gene had been characterized in rodents until recently when a novel human relaxin gene, human gene‐3 (H3) and its mouse equivalent (M3) were identified. The current study reports the identification of a rat homologue, rat gene‐3 (R3) relaxin that is highly expressed in a discrete region of the adult brain. The full R3 relaxin cDNA was generated using RT‐PCR and 3′ and 5′ RACE protocols. The derived amino acid sequence of R3 relaxin retains all the characteristic features of a relaxin peptide and has a high degree of homology with H3 and M3 relaxin. The distribution of R3 relaxin mRNA in adult rat brain was determined and highly abundant expression was only detected in neurons of the ventromedial dorsal tegmental nucleus (vmDTg) in the pons, whereas all other brain areas were unlabelled or contained much lower mRNA levels. Relaxin binding sites and relaxin immunoreactivity were also detected in the vmDTg. These together with earlier findings provide strong evidence for a role(s) for multiple relaxin peptides as neurotransmitters and/or modulators in the rat CNS.