The mouse Forkhead Box m1 transcription factor is essential for hepatoblast mitosis and development of intrahepatic bile ducts and vessels during liver morphogenesis

Katherine Krupczak-Hollis, Xinhe Wang, Vladimir V. Kalinichenko, Galina A. Gusarova, I. Ching Wang, Margaret B. Dennewitz, Helena M. Yoder, Hiroaki Kiyokawa, Klaus H. Kaestner, Robert H. Costa

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

182 Scopus citations

Abstract

Conditional deletion of the mouse Forkhead Box (Fox) m1b targeted allele in adult hepatocytes (Foxm1, previously called HFH-11B, Trident, Win, or MPP2) demonstrated that the Foxm1b transcription factor is essential for hepatocyte mitosis during liver regeneration. To determine the role of Foxm1b in liver development, we have generated Foxm1b -/- mice that deleted the Foxm1b exons encoding the winged helix DNA binding and transcriptional activation domains. Here, we show that all of the Foxm1b -/- embryos died in utero by 18.5 days postcoitum (dpc). Embryonic Foxm1b -/- livers displayed a 75% reduction in the number of hepatoblasts, resulting from diminished DNA replication and a failure to enter mitosis causing a polyploid phenotype. Reduced hepatoblast mitosis was associated with decreased protein levels of the Polo-like kinase 1 and Aurora B kinase, which phosphorylate regulatory proteins essential for orchestrating mitosis and cytokinesis. Diminished proliferation of Foxm1b -/- hepatoblasts contributed to abnormal liver development with significant reduction in the number of large hepatic veins compared to embryonic wild-type (WT) liver. Furthermore, embryonic Foxm1b -/- livers did not develop intrahepatic bile ducts, and these presumptive biliary hepatoblasts failed to express either biliary cytokeratins or nuclear levels of hepatocyte nuclear factor 1β. These results suggest that Foxm1b is critical for hepatoblast precursor cells to differentiate toward biliary epithelial cell lineage. Finally, we used a hepatoblast-specific Cre recombinase transgene to mediate deletion of the Foxm1b fl/fl allele in the developing liver, and these embryos died in utero and exhibited diminished hepatoblast proliferation with similar abnormalities in liver morphogenesis, suggesting that the defect in liver development contributed to embryonic lethality.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)74-88
Number of pages15
JournalDevelopmental Biology
Volume276
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2004

Funding

We thank Y. Tan and A.-X. Holterman for critically reviewing the manuscript and for helpful discussions. This work was supported by US Public Health Service Grants DK 54687-06 (RHC) and DK 49210 (KHK) from NIDDK and CA100201 (HK) from NCI. K. Krupczak-Hollis was supported in part by an NIH/NIDDK-funded predoctoral training program (T32 DK007739) in “Signal Transduction and Cellular Endocrinology.”

Keywords

  • Aurora B kinase
  • Forkhead Box
  • Intrahepatic bile ducts
  • Mitosis
  • Mouse liver development
  • Polo-like kinase
  • Winged helix DNA binding domain

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Molecular Biology
  • Cell Biology
  • Developmental Biology

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