| Joba et al., Munich, Germany, analyzed different tissues for the mRNA of the hNIS. They found high levels in thyroid gland, parotid gland, pituitary gland, non-lactating mammary gland, thymus, and gastric mucosa. Lower levels were found in heart, submandibular gland, and nasopharyngeal mucosa, while no hNIS gene expression was detected in colon and orbital fibroblasts. Further analysis of the hNIS gene in salivary gland revealed that the structure was identical to the recently published human thyroid-derived gene and from this the authors conclude that the variations in expression found in the different tissues, are rather due to altered transcriptional activity than to differences in gene structure. |
