Quantitative analysis of laminin 5 gene expression in human keratinocytes

To examine the expression of laminin 5 genes (LAMA3, LAMB3, and LAMC2) encoding the three polypeptide chains alpha3, beta3, and gamma2, respectively, in human keratinocytes, we developed novel quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods utilizing Thermus aquaticus DNA polymerase, specific primers, and fluorescein-labeled probes with the ABI PRISM 7700 sequence detector system. Gene expression levels of LAMA3, LAMB3, and LAMC2 and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase were quantitated reproducibly and sensitively in the range from 1 x 10(2) to 1 x 10(8) gene copies. Basal gene expression level of LAMB3 was about one-tenth of that of LAMA3 or LAMC2 in human keratinocytes, although there was no clear difference among immunoprecipitated protein levels of alpha3, beta3, and gamma2 synthesized in radio-labeled keratinocytes. Human serum augmented gene expressions of LAMA3, LAMB3, and LAMC2 in human keratinocytes to almost the same extent, and this was associated with an increase of the laminin 5 protein content measured by a specific sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. These results demonstrate that the absolute mRNA levels generated from the laminin 5 genes do not determine the translated protein levels of the laminin 5 chains in keratinocytes, and indicate that the expression of the laminin 5 genes may be controlled by common regulation mechanisms.