Expression pattern of cytosolic glutathione peroxidase (cGPx) mRNA during mouse embryogenesis

The selenoprotein cytosolic glutathione peroxidase (cGPx) is ubiquitously distributed in a variety of organs, and its primary function is to protect oxidative damage. To investigate the spatial and temporal expression pattern of cGPx mRNA in embryogenesis, as this has not been studied before, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was carried out in a thermal cycler using mouse-specific cGPx primers, and in situ hybridization was performed in whole embryos or embryonic tissues using digoxigenin-labeled mouse cGPx riboprobes. Expression of cGPx mRNA was detected in all the embryos retrieved from embryonic days (EDs) 7.5 to 18.5. On EDs 10.5–12.5, cGPx mRNA was highly expressed in the margin of forelimb and hindlimb buds and dorsally in the cranial neural tube, including the telencephalon, diencephalon, and hindbrain neural tube. On ED 13.5, cGPx mRNA was accumulated especially in vibrissae, forelimb and hindlimb plates, tail, and spinal cord. On EDs 14.5–16.5, cGPx mRNA was found in the developing brain, Rathke’s pouch, thymus, lung, and liver. On ED 17.5, the expression of cGPx mRNA was apparent in various tissues such as brain, submandibular gland, vibrissae, heart, lung, liver, stomach, intestine, pancreas, skin, and kidney. In particular, cGPx mRNA was greatly expressed in epithelial linings and metabolically active sites such as whisker follicles, alveolar epithelium of lung, surface epithelium and glandular region of stomach, skin epithelium, and cortex and tubules of kidney. Overall results indicate that cGPx mRNA is expressed in developing embryos, cell-specifically and tissue-specifically, suggesting that cGPx may function to protect the embryo against reactive oxygen species and/or hydroperoxides massively produced by the intracellular or extracellular environment.