Expression and identification of a new splice variant of neuroglycan C, a transmembrane chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan, in the human brain

Neuroglycan C (NGC) is a transmembrane chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan with an EGF module. We studied the expression of NGC in the human brain, mainly in the hippocampus, and confirmed some observations by conducting experiments using rat brain. In humans, NGC mRNA was expressed exclusively in the brain, especially in the immature brain. The telencephalon, including the hippocampus and neocortex, showed strong mRNA expression. NGC was immunolocalized to neuropils in the hippocampus and neocortex of the adult rat. RT-PCR experiments showed that four splice variants (NGC-I, -II, -III, and -IV) were expressed in the adult human hippocampus. By Western blotting, the expression as proteins of all splice variants except NGC-II was confirmed in the adult rat hippocampus. NGC-IV, which was first found in the present study, had the shortest cytoplasmic domain among the four variants. NGC-IV mRNA was expressed by neurons, but not by astrocytes, in culture prepared from the fetal rat hippocampus, suggesting that NGC-IV plays a role specific to neurons. In addition, the human NGC gene, which is registered as CSPG5, comprised six exons and was approximately 19 kb in size. In exon 2, a single nucleotide polymorphism resulting in Val188Gly in the NGC ectodomain was observed.