Cited by 438Redox biology and oxidative stressCell death mechanisms and regulationMitochondrial Function and Pathology

The Absence of Mitochondrial Thioredoxin 2 Causes Massive Apoptosis, Exencephaly, and Early Embryonic Lethality in Homozygous Mice

Open access
Nonn, Larisa, Williams, Ryan R., Erickson, Robert P., Powis, Garth·2003·Molecular and Cellular Biology

Abstract

Thioredoxin 2 (Trx-2) is a small redox protein containing the thioredoxin active site Trp-Cys-Gly-Pro-Cys that is localized to the mitochondria by a mitochondrial leader sequence and encoded by a nuclear gene (Trx-2). Trx-2 plays an important role in cell viability and the regulation of apoptosis in vitro. To investigate the role of Trx-2 in mouse development, we studied the phenotype of mice that have the Trx-2 gene silenced by mutational insertion. Homozygous mutant embryos do not survive to birth and die after implantation at Theiler stage 15/16. The homozygous mutant embryos display an open anterior neural tube and show massively increased apoptosis at 10.5 days postcoitus and are not present by 12.5 days postcoitus. The timing of the embryonic lethality coincides with the maturation of the mitochondria, since they begin oxidative phosphorylation during this stage of embryogenesis. In addition, embryonic fibroblasts cultured from homozygous Trx-2-null embryos were not viable. Heterozygous mice are fertile and have no discernible phenotype visible by external observation, despite having decreased Trx-2 mRNA and protein. These results show that the mitochondrial redox protein Trx-2 is required for normal development of the mouse embryo and for actively respiring cells.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1128/mcb.23.3.916-922.2003

Cites

33 of 33 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Both Trx1 and Trx2 appear to be essential, as complete deficiency of either subtype causes early embryonic lethality in mice.

    “Both Trx1 and Trx2 appear to be essential, as complete deficiency of either subtype causes early embryonic lethality in mice (280, 317).”

    From Redox regulation of mitochondrial function (2012) · cites this paper as [317]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 34 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [9]Damdimopoulos, A. E., A. Miranda-Vizuete, M. Pelto-Huikko, A. Gustafsson, and G. Spyrou. 2002.. Human mitochondrial thioredoxin: involvement in mitochondrial membrane potential and cell death. J. Biol. Chem. 277:33249-33257. [DOI] [PubMed]
  2. [14]Juriloff, D. M., and M. J. Harris. 1999. Mini-review: toward understanding mechanisms of genetic neural tube defects in mice. Teratology 60:292-305. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. [24]Shepard, T. H., L. A. Muffley, and L. T. Smith. 1998. Ultrastructural study of mitochondria and their cristea in embryonic rats and primate. Anat. Rec. 252:383-392. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Nonn, L., Williams, R. R., Erickson, R. P., & Powis, G.
Affiliations
University of Arizona (US)
Corresponding author
  • Nonn, Larisa
  • Powis, Garth
Venue
Molecular and Cellular Biology
Published
2003-02-01
Volume
23
Issue
3
Pages
916-922
ISSN
  • 0270-7306 (ISSN-L)
  • 1098-5549
OpenAlex
W2061958603
Cited by
438
References
34
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 18
FWCI
8.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Molecular and Cellular Biology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Cancer Institute (CA 23074, R01CA077204, CA77204, P30CA023074)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Redox biology and oxidative stress
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Cell death mechanisms and regulation
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Mitochondrial Function and Pathology
Keywords
thioredoxin 2, mitochondrial thioredoxin, apoptosis, exencephaly, embryonic lethality, neural tube defects, oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondrial maturation, embryonic fibroblasts, heterozygous mice
MeSH terms
Animals, Female, Fetal Death, Gestational Age, Heterozygote, Homozygote, Membrane Proteins, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mitochondria, Neural Tube Defects, Phenotype, Pregnancy, RNA, Messenger, Thioredoxins, Apoptosis, Mice, Knockout, Mice

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review