A. Robitzki et al., TRANSFECTION OF REAGGREGATING EMBRYONIC CHICKEN RETINAL CELLS WITH ANANTISENSE 5'-DNA BUTYRYLCHOLINESTERASE EXPRESSION VECTOR INHIBITS PROLIFERATION AND ALTERS MORPHOGENESIS, Journal of neurochemistry, 69(2), 1997, pp. 823-833
The function of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) in the develop
ing and mature brain is still unclear. We have inserted 577 bp of the
5' upstream region plus 106 bp of the exon 1 of the rabbit BChE gene i
n reverse orientation under control of an SV40 early promoter derivati
ve in an expression vector. This vector was introduced by calcium phos
phate-mediated transfection into embryonic chicken retina cells during
the first days of reaggregation culture. Depending on the retinal ori
gin, the transfected cell population forms histotypic retina-like sphe
res, so-called rosetted or stratified retinospheroids. We show that an
tisense 5'-BChE gene expression decreased the steady-state mRNA level
of BChE and the translation of the BChE protein, inhibited proliferati
on, and accelerated histogenesis in both cellular systems. The pronoun
ced effects of antisense 5'-BChE transfection of spheroids document a
key role of BChE during the early reaggregation process of retinal cel
ls, most likely by regulating their growth and differentiation.