Alternatively spliced isoforms of FE65 serve as neuron-specific and non-neuronal markers

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Abstract
FE65 is predominantly expressed in brain and is especially rich in the regions with the highest densities of neurons. The FE65 protein binds to an intracellular domain of the β‐amyloid precursor protein (βPP) and may modulate the production of β‐amyloid peptide (AP). One of FE65 exons, a mini‐exon (exon 9, 6 bp), is alternatively spliced, giving rise to two isoforms varying only in 6 base pairs. We quantitated the two isoforms by a sensitive reverse transcription‐competitive polymerase chain reaction technique, and characterized their expressions in various tissues and cell cultures, and the kinetics of expression of the two isoforms in P19 embryonal carcinoma cell lines during neuronal differentiation. Our results show that the exon 9‐inclusive (E9) form, the more abundant form in brain, was exclusively expressed in neurons, while the exon 9‐exclusive (ΔE9) form was widely expressed in all non‐neuronal cells, but was not expressed in differentiated neurons. When P19 cells were differentiated to neurons, expression of FE65 was significantly up regulated (∼30‐fold) and the splicing pattern of the FE65 pre‐mRNA was switched from the ΔE9 pattern to the E9 form. Based upon their distinctive expression patterns, these two isoforms may serve as neuronal and non‐neuronal markers, and determination of their ratios may have applications in neuropathological diagnosis. J. Neurosci. Res. 58:632–640, 1999.