Restricted, but abundant, expression of the novel rat gene-3 (R3) relaxin in the dorsal tegmental region of brain

Abstract

Relaxin is a peptide hormone with known actions associated with female reproductive physiology, but it has also been identified in the brain. Only one relaxin gene had been characterized in rodents until recently when a novel human relaxin gene, human gene-3 (H3) and its mouse equivalent (M3) were identified. The current study reports the identification of a rat homologue, rat gene-3 (R3) relaxin that is highly expressed in a discrete region of the adult brain. The full R3 relaxin cDNA was generated using RT-PCR and 3′ and 5′ RACE protocols. The derived amino acid sequence of R3 relaxin retains all the characteristic features of a relaxin peptide and has a high degree of homology with H3 and..