| First Author | Kamat AA | Year | 2004 |
| Journal | Endocrinology | Volume | 145 |
| Issue | 10 | Pages | 4712-20 |
| PubMed ID | 15256493 | Mgi Jnum | J:92627 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3054144 | Doi | 10.1210/en.2004-0515 |
| Citation | Kamat AA, et al. (2004) Genetic targeting of relaxin and insulin-like factor 3 receptors in mice. Endocrinology 145(10):4712-20 |
| abstractText | Relaxin (RLN) is a small peptide hormone that affects a variety of biological processes. Rln1 knockout mice exhibit abnormal nipple development, prolonged parturition, agerelated pulmonary fibrosis, and abnormalities in the testes and prostate. We describe here RLN receptor Lgr7-deficient mice. Mutant females have grossly underdeveloped nipples and are unable to feed their progeny. Some Lgr7-/- females were unable to deliver their pups. Histological analysis of Lgr7 mutant lung tissues demonstrates increased collagen accumulation and fibrosis surrounding the bronchioles and the vascular bundles, absent in wild-type animals. However, Lgr7-deficient males do not exhibit abnormalities in the testes or prostate as seen in Rln1 knockout mice. Lgr7-deficient females with additional deletion of Lgr8 (Great), another putative receptor for RLN, are fertile and have normal-sized litters. Double mutant males have normal-sized prostate and testes, suggesting that Lgr8 does not account for differences in Rln1-/- and Lgr7-/- phenotypes. Transgenic overexpression of Insl3, the cognate ligand for Lgr8, does not rescue the mutant phenotype of Lgr7-deficient female mice indicating nonoverlapping functions of the two receptors. Our data indicate that neither Insl3 nor Lgr8 contribute to the RLN signaling pathway. We conclude that the Insl3/Lgr8 and Rln1/Lgr7 actions do not overlap in vivo. |
