MEMBERS OF THE SYNDECAN FAMILY OF HEPARAN-SULFATE PROTEOGLYCANS ARE EXPRESSED IN DISTINCT CELL-SPECIFIC, TISSUE-SPECIFIC, AND DEVELOPMENT-SPECIFIC PATTERNS
Cw. Kim et al., MEMBERS OF THE SYNDECAN FAMILY OF HEPARAN-SULFATE PROTEOGLYCANS ARE EXPRESSED IN DISTINCT CELL-SPECIFIC, TISSUE-SPECIFIC, AND DEVELOPMENT-SPECIFIC PATTERNS, Molecular biology of the cell, 5(7), 1994, pp. 797-805
The syndecans are a gene family of four transmembrane heparan sulfate
proteoglycans that bind, via their HS chains, diverse components of th
e cellular microenvironment. To evaluate the expression of the individ
ual syndecans, we prepared cDNA probes to compare mRNA levels in vario
us adult mouse tissues and cultured mouse cells representing various e
pithelial, fibroblastic, endothelial, and neural cell types and B cell
s at various stages of differentiation. We also prepared antibody prob
es to assess whether the extracellular domains of the individual synde
cans are shed into the conditioned media of cultured cells. Our result
s show that all cells and tissues studied, except B-stem cells, expres
s at least one syndecan family member; most cells and tissues express
multiple syndecans. However, each syndecan family member is expressed
selectively in cell-, tissue-, and development-specific patterns. The
extracellular domain of all syndecan family members is shed as an inta
ct proteoglycan. Thus, most, if not all, cells acquire a distinctive r
epertoire of the four syndecan family members as they differentiate, r
esulting is selective patterns of expression that likely reflect disti
nct functions.