%0 Journal Article
%T Postnatal liver growth and regeneration are independent of c-myc in a mouse model of conditional hepatic c-myc deletion
%A Jennifer A Sanders
%A Christoph Schorl
%A Ajay Patel
%A John M Sedivy
%A Philip A Gruppuso
%J BMC Physiology
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1472-6793-12-1
%X Liver weight to body weight ratios were similar in control and c-myc deficient mice. Liver architecture was unaffected. Conditional c-myc deletion did not result in compensatory induction of other myc family members or in c-Myc's binding partner Max. Floxed c-myc did have a negative effect on Alb-Cre expression at 4 weeks of age. To explore this relationship further, we used the Rosa26 reporter line to assay Cre activity in the c-myc floxed mice. No significant difference in Alb-Cre activity was found between control and c-mycfl/fl mice. c-myc deficient mice were studied in a nonproliferative model of liver growth, fasting for 48 hr followed by a 24 hr refeeding period. Fasting resulted in a decrease in liver mass and liver protein, both of which recovered upon 24 h of refeeding in the c-mycfl/fl;Alb-Cre animals. There was also no effect of reducing c-myc on recovery of liver mass following 2/3 partial hepatectomy.c-Myc appears to be dispensable for normal liver growth during the postnatal period, restoration of liver mass following partial hepatectomy and recovery from fasting.The Myc family includes three closely related genes, c-myc, L-myc, and N-myc, which have been shown to have similar biological activities. The three Myc proteins are basic helix-loop-helix leucine zipper transcription factors that heterodimerize with a binding partner, Max, to bind DNA and either activate or repress the transcription of a large set of target genes [1-3]. An additional member of the family, B-myc, encodes a protein that is homologous to the N-terminal domain of c-Myc, but its function remains largely unknown [4]. c-Myc has been shown to regulate genes involved in ribosomal biogenesis, protein translation and the transition from the G0/G1 to S-phase of the cell cycle suggesting that c-Myc has a functional role in the coordination of cellular growth and proliferation. The expression of c-myc is, in general, tightly regulated. Proliferating cells contain high levels of this prote
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6793/12/1