Profiles of PrKX expression in developmental mouse embryo and human tissues

Protein kinase X (PrKX), karyotypically located on the human X chromosome, is a type I cAMP-dependent protein kinase. Although a specific role for PrKX has not yet been defined, PrKX gene expression in mouse and human tissues has been profiled only by in situ hybridization and Northern blot analyses and not by protein expression. To determine more precisely the PrKX protein levels, we developed specific anti-PrKX antibodies and examined gestationally staged mouse embryo sections by immunohistochemistry. These results showed that PrKX is ubiquitously distributed and highly expressed in murine central nervous system and heart tissues in early developmental stages and in most organs at later stages but was not detected in either connective tissues or bone. Using Western blots to detect PrKX, total protein extracts from eight different adult or fetal human tissues including brain, heart, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas, spleen, and thymus were analyzed. Although PrKX protein was present in each of the tissues tested, the protein levels varied depending on tissue type and developmental stage. Very low protein levels were found in heart tissues from a 5-month-old fetus and from an adult, whereas PrKX proteins were more abundant in fetal brain, kidney, and liver tissues compared with adult samples of the same tissue type.