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Developmental regulation of the serpin, protease nexin I, localization during activity‐dependent polyneuronal synapse elimination in mouse skeletal muscle

During vertebrate neuromuscular development, all muscle fibers are transiently innervated by more than one neuron. Among the numerous factors shown to potentially influence the passage from poly‐ to mononeuronal innervation, serine proteases and their inhibitors appear to play important roles. In this regard, protease nexin I (PNI), a potent inhibitor of the serine protease, thrombin, is highly localized to the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). In turn, thrombin is responsible for activity‐dependent synapse elimination both in an in vitro model, and in vivo. In the present study, we used a monospecific anti‐PNI polyclonal antibody to study the developmental kinetics of PNI expression in mouse leg skeletal muscle. By using immunoblotting, we detected PNI at embryonic day 16 (E16), as a 48‐kDa band. This 48‐kDa PNI band became prominent in leg muscle extracts at postnatal day 5 (P5) and remained so in extracts from adult muscle. In contrast, a higher molecular weight immunoreactive PNI band, which was sodium dodecyl sulfate– and β‐mercaptoethanol–resistant, was first detected at E16, increased at birth (P0), and then decreased at P15, i.e., after the wave of polyneuronal synapse elimination had occurred in these muscles. The results of an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, measuring active, complexed, and truncated PNI, correlated with Western blot data. We used immunocytochemistry to probe the localization of PNI at the NMJ and found that PNI was present in the cytoplasm of myotubes at E16, but neither then nor at birth did it colocalize with acetylcholine receptors. PNI became localized at NMJs by P5 and increased by P15, after which it remained stably concentrated there in the adult. Finally, we studied the gene expression of PNI mRNA, by using Northern blotting, and showed that PNI mRNA was present in skeletal muscle and remained stable throughout the time‐course studies, suggesting that developmental regulation of muscle PNI occurs principally at the translational and/or post‐translational levels. These results suggest that the localization of PNI, through a binding site or “receptor” may play an important role in differentiation and maintenance of synapse. J. Comp. Neurol. 397:572–579, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.