Expression and effects of TSP50 in mouse embryo and cardiac myocyte development.

TSP50, a testis-specific gene encoding a serine protease-like protein, was specifically expressed in the spermatocytes of testes but abnormally activated and expressed in many different kinds of cancers. Here, we aimed to analyze the expression of TSP50 in mouse embryo and its function in early embryonic development. Firstly, the distribution of TSP50 in oocytes and embryonic development was characterized by immunofluorescence, RT-PCR and western blotting, and the results showed that TSP50 was detected at all studied stages with a dynamic expression pattern. When overexpressed TSP50 in zygotes by microinjection, the zygotes development was highly accelerated. On the contrary, knocking down TSP50 expression by RNA interference greatly retarded the zygote development. Furthermore, TSP50 expression at embryonic day 6.5 (E6.5), day 8.5 (E8.5) and day 10.5 (E10.5) were increasingly enhanced, However, the expression of TSP50 decreased gradually in the development and differentiation of cardiac myocyte from E12.5 to postnatal (P0). Additionally, we found that TSP50 expression was decreased during cardiac myocyte differentiation of P19 cells. Overexpression of TSP50 could decrease the expression of GATA-4, and knockdown of TSP50 markedly increase the expression of GATA-4. Taken together, our data indicate that TSP50 may play an important role during the process of mouse embryonic development as well as myocardial cell differentiation.