Neuron-specific splicing of the Alzheimer amyloid precursor protein gene in a mini-gene system

Several forms of Alzheimer amyloid precursor protein (APP) mRNA are generated by alternative splicing. Among them, the APP695 mRNA skipping the exon 7 and 8 is expressed specifically in neurons, suggesting that this alternative splicing is regulated in a neuron-specific manner. As the first step for investigating the mechanism of the neuron-specific splicing, a mini-gene system was developed, in which mini-APP genes consisting of the exon 6, 7, 8, 9 and their flanking regions were introduced into neuronal and nonneuronal cultured cell lines to see their expression profiles. In the system the exon 7 and 8 of the mini-gene were significantly skipped in the neuronal cell, and the deletion study indicated that cis-acting elements for skipping the exons existed in the corresponding skipped-exon and its flanking regions. A small deletion upstream of the exon 8 suppressed the skipping of the exon 8 in the neuronal cell, suggesting that one of the regulatory sequence(s) for the exon skipping exists in a small region upstream of the skipped exon.