The expression of J chain and mu chain genes has been investigated dur
ing human fetal ontogeny by the polymerase chain reaction performed on
liver sections. With this technique, we have been able to detect expr
ession of J chain and mu chain in a single 6-10-mu m-thick formalin-fi
xed paraffin-embedded section of fetal liver tissue J chain expression
reached a maximum at 16 weeks of gestation but was clearly detectable
in the liver at the 6th week. Although not detectable at the 6th week
, mu chain mRNA became readily detectable at 7 weeks of gestation. The
se results indicate that J chain expression precedes that of mu chain
by at least one week. Therefore, our results imply that J chain is the
first immunoglobulin-related polypeptide expressed during the embryog
enesis and differentiation of B cells in the fetal liver.