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1 The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2 University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jeffrey.zigman{at}UTSouthwestern.edu.
Ghrelin is a peptide hormone with many known functions, including orexigenic, blood glucose regulatory, anxiolytic, and anti-depressant actions, among others. Mature ghrelin is unique in that it is the only known naturally-occurring peptide to be post-translationally modified by O-acylation with octanoate. This acylation is required for many of ghrelin's actions, including its effects on promoting increases in food intake and body weight. GOAT (Ghrelin O-Acyltransferase), one of 16 members of the MBOAT family of membrane-bound O-acyl transferases, has recently been identified as the enzyme responsible for catalyzing the addition of the octanoyl group to ghrelin. Although the initial reports of GOAT have localized its encoding mRNA to tissues known to contain ghrelin, it is as yet unclear if the octanoylation occurs within ghrelin-producing cells or in neighboring cells. Here, we have performed dual-label histochemical analysis on mouse stomach sections and quantitative polymerase chain reaction on mRNAs from highly enriched pools of mouse gastric ghrelin cells to demonstrate a high degree of GOAT mRNA expression within ghrelin-producing cells of the gastric oxyntic mucosa. We also demonstrate that GOAT is the only member of the MBOAT family whose expression is highly enriched within gastric ghrelin cells and whose whole body distribution mirrors that of ghrelin.
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