HUMAN NEUTROPHILS EXPRESS GH-N GENE TRANSCRIPTS AND THE PITUITARY TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR PIT-1B

Since GH stimulates the development and function of granulocytes, we i nvestigated the expression of GH in granulocyte subsets. By immunocyto chemistry, 25 +/- 7% of the human neutrophils were shown to express im munoreactive GH, whereas eosinophils were negative. Reversed transcrip tion (RT)-PCR analysis demonstrated GH mRNA in neutrophils. Restrictio n analysis revealed that neutrophils express the GH-N gene but not the GH-V gene. Furthermore, we demonstrated by western blot analysis that neutrophils express an alternatively spliced variant of the pituitary transcription factor Pit-1, designated Pit-1b.