Mouse LSECtin as a model for a human Ebola virus receptor

Pipirou, Zoi; Powlesland, Alex S; Steffen, Imke; Pöhlmann, Stefan; Taylor, Maureen E; Drickamer, Kurt

Expression and characterization of the CRD from mouse LSECtin LSECtin is a type 2 transmembrane protein in which the C-type CRD resides at the C-terminal end of the protein ( Figure 1A ). An initial survey of the distribution of LSECtin expression was undertaken using the polymerase chain reaction to amplify the LSECtin-coding region from a panel of cDNAs with a pair of primers that lie just outside the protein-coding region at each end ( Figure 1B) . Expression was detected exclusively in the liver, as was previously observed for human LSECtin in a survey of a similar set of human tissues (Liu et al. 2004 ). This distribution is consistent with the idea that mouse LSECtin performs a function similar to human LSECtin in sinusoidal endothelial cells, although it was not possible to document expression in lymph node as well because of the difficulty of obtaining a suitable cDNA library.