BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN SIRT6 IN THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM

Abstract

Sirt6, is known as a nuclear protein involved in transcription, DNA repair, genome and telomere stabilization and metabolic homeostasis. Sirt6 knockout cells exhibit genetic instability and in mice, deficiency of Sirt6 leads to an early ageing-like phenotype. We tried to evaluate Sirt6 expression in different tissues especially the CNS and in this connection, Sirt6 expression pattern and localization as well as its possible functions especially in the nucleolus was evaluated. The current study first shows that Sirt6 is a ubiquitously expressed protein in most tissues especially in developing brain, with a high expression level in the neurons of hippocampus, cerebellum and spinal cord (motor neurons). Under stress conditions or after certain point mutations, Sirt6 might be toxic to cells. Additionally, the results have shown that Sirt6 is primarily a nuclear protein but its localization and its level changes during cell cycle.