Different posttranscriptional controls for the human neurofilament light and heavy genes in transgenic mice

To investigate the mechanisms regulating neurofilament gene expression, we generated transgenic mice with high copy number of the intact human neurofilament light (NF-L) and heavy (NF-H) genes. Overexpression in transgenic mice of NF-L mRNA from 3- to 5-fold in different regions of the central nervous system (CNS) resulted only in a mild increase of 10-50% in the levels of NF-L proteins. The failure to enhance NF-L protein content was not due to interspecies differences in posttranscriptional NF-L regulation. For instance, based on specific immunodetection, it is estimated that human NF-L proteins composed 80% of total NF-L content in the spinal cord of transgenics. In contrast to the situation with NF-L, the CNS of transgenic mice bearing multiple copies of the human NF-H gene showed comparable increases in the levels of NF-H mRNA and proteins. These results suggest that the NF-L and NF-H genes are subject to different posttranscriptional regulation in the CNS. In vivo labeling of newly synthesized proteins by injection of [35S]methionine in the spinal cords of normal and transgenic mice provided evidence that the posttranscriptional regulation of NF-L expression in the CNS must occur, at least in part, at the level of translation.