Molecular cloning of alpha 1d-adrenergic receptor and tissue distribution of three alpha 1-adrenergic receptor subtypes in mouse.

A partial cDNA encoding most of the third intracellular loop of the mouse alpha 1d-adrenergic receptor subtype was amplified from hippocampus by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using degenerate oligodeoxynucleotide primers. This DNA fragment was used as a probe to isolate an alpha 1d-adrenergic receptor cDNA from a mouse brain cDNA library. The deduced amino acid sequence encodes a potential protein of 562 amino acids, and northern hybridization of poly(A)+ RNA isolated from mouse brain detected a single 3.0-kb transcript. Partial cDNA fragments of the alpha 1b- and alpha 1a-adrenergic receptor subtypes were also amplified from mouse brain and sequenced. Analysis of the mRNA expression by RT-PCR indicated that the alpha 1-adrenergic receptors are widely distributed in mouse tissues. The alpha 1d subtype is expressed in brain areas such as hippocampus, striatum, and brainstem and also in many extracerebral tissues, such as lung, liver, heart, kidney, and spleen. The alpha 1a subtype is also expressed in many tissues, whereas the alpha 1b subtype has a more restricted expression, with high levels in striatum, brainstem, and diencephalus.