日本国立成育医疗研究中心系统发生和再生医学研究部的研究小组日前发现对生成连接骨骼和肌肉的肌腱发挥重要作用的基因。
研究小组利用独自开发的基因数据库，发现“Mkx”基因对肌腱发育成熟具有重要作用。通过老鼠实验发现，剔除了该基因的老鼠，其肌腱会停止发育，而且非常脆弱。肌腱一旦损伤，将很难再生，因此这一成果将有望促进开发出新的治疗方法。
有关论文已刊登在美国《国家科学院学报》上。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原文出处：
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1000525107
The Mohawk homeobox gene is a critical regulator of tendon differentiation
Yoshiaki Itoa, Naoya Toriuchia, Teruhito Yoshitakaa, Hiroe Ueno-Kudoha, Tempei Satoa, Shigetoshi Yokoyamaa, Keiichiro Nishidab, Takayuki Akimotoc, Michiko Takahashia, Shigeru Miyakia, and Hiroshi Asaharaa,1
aDepartment of Systems BioMedicine, National Research Institute for Child Health and Development, Tokyo 157-8535, Japan;
bDepartment of Human Morphology, Science of Functional Recovery and Reconstruction, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine and Dentistry, Okayama 700-8558, Japan; and
cLaboratory of Regenerative Medical Engineering, Center for Disease Biology and Integrative Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Mohawk (Mkx) is a member of the Three Amino acid Loop Extension superclass of atypical homeobox genes that is expressed in developing tendons. To investigate the in vivo functions of Mkx, we generated Mkx ?/? mice. These mice had hypoplastic tendons throughout the body. Despite the reduction in tendon mass, the cell number in tail tendon fiber bundles was similar between wild-type and Mkx ?/? mice. We also observed small collagen fibril diameters and a down-regulation of type I collagen in Mkx ?/? tendons. These data indicate that Mkx plays a critical role in tendon differentiation by regulating type I collagen production in tendon cells.
