Expression of Heparan Sulfate Endosulfatases in the Adult Mouse Brain: Co-expression of and Dopamine D1/D2 Receptors.

The heparan sulfate 6--endosulfatases, Sulfatase 1 (Sulf1), and Sulfatase 2 (Sulf2), are extracellular enzymes that regulate cellular signaling by removing 6--sulfate from the heparan sulfate chain. Although previous studies have revealed that are essential for normal development, their functions in the adult brain remain largely unknown. To gain insight into their neural functions, we used hybridization to systematically examine mRNA expression in the adult mouse brain. and mRNAs showed distinct expression patterns, which is in contrast to their overlapping expression in the embryonic brain. In addition, we found that was distinctly expressed in the nucleus accumbens shell, the posterior tail of the striatum, layer 6 of the cerebral cortex, and the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus, all of which are target areas of dopaminergic projections. Using double-labeling techniques, we showed that -expressing cells in the above regions coincided with cells expressing the dopamine D1 and/or D2 receptor. These findings implicate possible roles of in modulation of dopaminergic transmission and dopamine-mediated behaviors.