Identification of PSF, the polypyrimidine tract-binding protein-associated splicing factor, as a developmentally regulated neuronal protein.

The polypyrimidine tract-binding protein-associated splicing factor (PSF), which plays an essential role in mammalian spliceosomes, has been found to be expressed by differentiating neurons in developing mouse brain. The sequence of a fragment of mouse PSF was found to be remarkably similar to that of human PSF. Both the expression of PSF mRNA in cortex and cerebellum and PSF immunoreactivity in all brain areas were high during embryonic and early postnatal life and almost disappeared in adult tissue, except in the hippocampus and olfactory bulb where various neuronal populations remained PSF-immunopositive. Double-labeling experiments with anti-PSF antibody and anti-neurofilaments or anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein antibodies on sections of cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum indicate that PSF is expressed by differentiating neurons but not by astrocytic cells. In vitro, mouse PSF was found to be expressed by differentiating cortical and cerebellar neurons. Radial glia or astrocyte nuclei were not immunopositive; however, oligodendrocytes differentiating in vitro were found to express PSF. The restricted expression of PSF suggests that this splicing factor could be involved in the control of neuronal-specific splicing events occurring at particular stages of neuronal differentiation and maturation.