Alternative splicing of human NrCAM in neural and nonneural tissues

Neural cell adhesion molecule NrCAM exists in a variety of isoforms as a result of alternative splicing of individual exons during RNA processing. In this report we demonstrate that many of the alternative splicing events described for chick are conserved in man and describe a novel variant of NrCAM cDNA. Furthermore, we show that NrCAM is expressed at significant levels outside the nervous system; in particular in pancreas, adrenal glands, and placenta and that expression in both brain and other tissues is accompanied by a very variable pattern of exon utilization in fetal and adult cells.