Developmental Expression Pattern of Hspb8 mRNA in the Mouse Brain: Analysis Through Online Databases

Abstract

Hspb8 is a member of the Hspb family of chaperone-like proteins. It is involved in several neural disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, hereditary distal motor neuropathy, and Charcot-Marie-Tooth's disease. In this work, we aimed to characterize its expression pattern in the mouse brain, by using the information available at online databases of high-throughput in situ hybridization. Therefore, we downloaded and analyzed the image series from these databases showing Hspb8 mRNA expression from embryonic to adult and aging stages. In early gestational embryos, Hspb8 was expressed in the hippocampal anlagen and in the ventricular layer of rhombomere 4. At perinatal stages, there appeared transitory expression in the dentate gyrus and the cerebellar cortex. From perinatal to aging stages, the neurons of the mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus and cranial motor nuclei displayed stable and strong Hspb8 expression. Additionally, along these stages there was moderate and relatively homogenous expression in the anterodorsal thalamic, lateral mammillary, arcuate hypothalamic and medial habenular nuclei, and in the locus coeruleus. In its turn, the basal ganglia, cerebellar inner granular layer and diverse sensory and reticular formation nuclei of the hindbrain contained scattered cells with strong expression. In conclusion, Hspb8 mRNA is constitutively expressed in specific brain structures across ontogeny, so that eventually they could be affected by the malfunction or deregulation of this molecule. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.