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Email Address:
acampagnoni@mednet.ucla.edu
Work Address:
NPI
47-4481 NPI, 760 Westwood Plaza
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Phone Numbers:
310-825-5006
Office
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Dr. Campagnoni's research covers three areas: 1. Exploring the roles of a novel Myelin Basic Protein sequence-containing gene in neural development in process extension and migration. In the past year Campagnoni and colleagues have continued their studies on a novel gene, which they call the Golli gene, that overlaps and includes the myelin basic protein gene. Campagnoni's team have been actively pursuing the function of the protein products of this gene. Campagnoni's laboratory have completed an extensive series of studies to determine where and when the protein products are expressed, and have found that they are expressed in neurons and in oligodendrocytes in mice and in humans. Golli proteins are expressed in pioneering neurons in the developing nervous system and Campagnoni believes that they are involved in process extension and neuronal migration early in development. Campagnoni and colleagues have produced several "immortalized" mouse cell lines in which these Golli proteins are synthesized and they appear to be associated with the cytoskeleton. Under certain conditions, in vivo and in vitro, the Golli proteins are found to be transported into the nuclei of some neurons, where Campagnoni believes they have a second role, possibly in regulating gene expression. 2. Autoimmune implications of a Myelin Basic Protein sequence-containing gene expression in the thymus, spleen, and lymph nodes. Studies on the expression of the Golli products have opened up a new research area for the laboratory. Campagnoni's team find that Golli proteins (which contain myelin basic protein sequences) are expressed in the thymus, spleen and lymph nodes of the immune system. This prompted them to search for the expression of other myelin protein antigens in these immune tissues and have found that the myelin proteolipid proteins are also expressed in human thymus. These findings are of major importance because the myelin basic protein and proteolipid protein are potent autoimmunogens, in that they cause an autoimmune response resulting in myelin degeneration. For years, immunologists have assumed that the expression of these proteins occurred in the nervous system and that the myelin proteins were sequestered behind the blood-brain barrier. Thus, the immune system was thought to be "naive" to these proteins, and this was believed to account for why the immune system responded to these proteins as if they were foreign antigens. Campagnoni's studies have shown these assumptions to be incorrect, which will require that they rethink the mechanisms that are responsible for the autoimmune response to myelin proteins. 3. Localization and expression of receptors for hormones involved in the development of sexual dimorphism. In other studies, Dr. Campagnoni's team have continued their work on the cloning and expression of genes important for the formation of sexually dimorphic regions of the brain using the zebra finch song system as a model. In the past year they have cloned the zebra finch estrogen receptor gens and Campagnoni's laboratory performed the first mapping of the distribution of cells expressing the estrogen receptor mRNAs in the zebra finch. The results were interesting because they showed that the greatest expression of the estrogen receptor mRNA occurred in the hypothalamus and pre-optic area with little expression in the regions of brain that control song. Campagnoni plans to extend these studies, performed in collaboration with Dr. Arthur Arnold, to young birds to examine expression of this important gene prior to the development of the song nuclei in the brain.
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