Post-transcriptional regulation of complement C4 in low C4-producing strain of mouse

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Abstract
The expression of the fourth component of complement (C4) of the mouse can differ 20-fold and is determined byC4-high (C4 h ) orC4-low (C4 l ) alleles. To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the differences in C4 expression, we compared the transcriptional activity of theC4 genes between high and low C4-producer strains of mice (B10 and FM vs B10.BR) using nuclear transcriptional and chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) assays. We also compared the level of C4-specific RNA in total and nuclear RNA of the liver. The results revealed no significant difference in transcriptional activity betweenC4 h andC4 l genes. However, the steady-state levels of C4 mRNA are ten times lower inC4 l strains than inC4 h strains, suggesting that the major regulation of C4 plasma levels occurs at the post-transcriptional level.