Transcriptional control of the murine albumin/alpha-fetoprotein locus during development.

Abstract

The ontogeny of expression of the .alpha.-fetoprotein (AFP) and albumin genes was examined in livers from late prenatal to 1-mo.-postpartum C3H/He mice. A parallel accumulation of both AFP and albumin mRNA before birth, followed by a selective nonreciprocal decrease in AFP mRNA after birth, was observed. The decrease in AFP mRNA was the result of a decrease in transcription of the AFP gene, as measured by an in vitro nuclear transcription assay. A model for hepatic expression of the AFP and albumin gene cluster in which transcription of the 2 genes is activated simultaneously during differentiation and each gene is thereafter modulated independently in commited cells was suggested.