Genetic study of molecular characteristic of autophagy-related proteins LC3A and LC3B

自噬相关蛋白LC 3A和LC 3B的作用在很大程度上仍然未知，尽管LC 3被用作自噬体形成的标记蛋白。为了进一步了解它们的作用，产生了LC 3A和LC 3B的单和双敲除（KO）小鼠。这些KO小鼠正常出生，长大后能够繁殖。GABARAP蛋白家族的蛋白表达在野生型和LC 3A/B缺陷小鼠身体组织如脑、肝、肾和心脏之间没有变化，表明它们维持基本的自噬。LC 3A/B缺陷的新生儿海马锥体神经元对缺氧缺血性脑损伤具有抵抗性。这一结果有力地表明，在小鼠脑海马锥体层中存在自噬性神经元死亡。

The roles of autophagy-related proteins LC3A and LC3B largely remains unknown, although LC3 are used as a marker protein for autophagosome formation. To further understand their roles, single and double knockout (KO) mice of LC3A and LC3B were produced. These KO mice were born normally and grown-up to be capable of reproduction. Protein expression of the GABARAP family of proteins did not change between wild-type and LC3A/B-deficient mouse body tissues such as brain, liver, kidney and heart, indicating they maintain basic autophagy. Hippocampal pyramidal neurons of neonatal brains deficient in LC3A/B were resistant to hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. The result strongly suggests the presence of autophagic neuron death in the hippocampal pyramidal layer of mouse brains.