Laminin α1, α2, α4 and β1 chain mRNA expression in mouse embryonic, neonatal, and adult hearts

We examined the relative expression of laminin α1, α2, α4 and β1 chain genes in the heart of embryonic, neonatal and adult BALb/c mice. The reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction was employed to determine the mRNA expression of these chains because of the relatively small amount of RNA extracted from rat embryonic hearts. Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase and β-actin were used as internal controls. Among the hearts examined, a relatively high expression of laminin α1 chain was observed in the embryonic hearts, while its expression was very weak in the neonatal and negligible in the adult hearts. Conversely, expression of laminin α2 chain was virtually not observed in the embryonic hearts, but this chain was expressed weakly in the neonatal and substantially in the adult hearts. Similar to laminin α1, laminin α4 was expressed in the embryonic hearts, while its expression was relatively weak in the neonatal and adult hearts. Laminin β1 was expressed in the hearts of mice at all stages examined. These results demonstrate that the laminin chain gene expression changes in the different developmental stages of the hearts of BALb/c mice.