Coordinated postnatal down-regulation of multiple growth-promoting genes: evidence for a genetic program limiting organ growth.

ABSTRACT: Children grow, but adults do not. The cessation of growth in multiple organs is the end result of a progressive decline in cell proliferation beginning in early life. The mechanisms responsible for this growth deceleration are largely unknown. Using expression microarray and real-time PCR, we identified a common program of gene expression in lung, kidney, and liver during growth deceleration in juvenile rats. Gene ontology analyses and siRNA-mediated knockdown in vitro indicated that many of the down-regulated genes are growth promoting. Down-regulated genes in the program showed declining histone H3K4 trimethylation with age, implicating underlying epigenetic mechanisms. To investigate the physiological processes driving the genetic program, a tryptophan-deficient diet was used to tempora

SUBMITTER: Lui JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2909290 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature