Coactivator and corepressor gene expression in rat cerebellum during postnatal development and the effect of altered thyroid status

Thyroid hormone (TH) plays an important role in the postnatal development of the rodent cerebellum, particularly within the first 2 weeks of postnatal life. This action is exerted through the regulation of specific genes during development and is mediated by coactivator and corepressor proteins that determine transcriptional repression or activation, respectively. Thus, we hypothesized that the effect of TH on rodent cerebellar development could be influenced by the relative amounts of coactivator and corepressor proteins in vivo. These ratios might be modulated in an age-specific manner and/or by hormones to generate the "critical period" of TH action. To examine this hypothesis, we cloned rat complementary DNA fragments corresponding to coactivators (SRC1, TIF2 and TRAM1) and corepressors (N-CoR and SMRT), and studied the ontogenic changes in their corresponding messenger RNAs in rat cerebellum of normal and hypothyroid rats during postnatal development, using a RNase protection assay. We found an increased expression of SRC1 and TIF2, as well as of N-CoR, during rat cerebellar development but no change in the expression of SMRT and TRAM1 genes. However, thyroid hormone status did not affect the expression of coactivator and corepressor genes in the cerebellum. These results indicate that coactivator and corepressor messenger RNAs exhibit differential expression through cerellear development but are not regulated by TH during this period.