Detection of coagulating gland renin by hybridohistochemistry

To obtain evidence of renin-synthesizing cells in the murine coagulating gland (CG), CG renin mRNA was detected by hybridohistochemistry, as well as in vitro reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in intact, castrated and testosterone-treated C57BL/6 mice. Hybridohistochemistry using paraffin sections of the kidneys and the CGs for the detection of renin mRNA was performed with digoxigenin-labelled probes. Some paraffin sections were immunohistochemically stained for renin by the peroxidase-anti-peroxidase method. Total RNA was extracted, incubated by reverse transcriptase, and amplified by PCR. In the kidneys, the immunoreactivity and the positive signals of hybridohistochemistry using an antisense probe were restricted to the same juxtaglomerular cells. In the control and at 7 days after testosterone administration to castrated mice, both renin-immunoreactivity and -hybridoreactivity were expressed by the epithelial cells in the CGs, while, in the CGs of the castrated mice and 3 days after testosterone injection of castrated animals, neither renin-immunoreactivity nor -hybridoreactivity was detected in the epithelial cells. Using RT-PCR, renin mRNA from the mice in the control and 7 days after testosterone injection of castrated was amplified, whereas, in the castrated and the 3 days after testosterone injection of castrated groups, it was not detected. The data presented here provide additional evidence that CG renin is regulated by testosterone.