mortality/aging
• some homozygotes survive beyond weaning
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• most homozygotes die prior to birth, after implantation
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growth/size/body
• surviving adult homozygotes are significantly smaller than wild-type littermates
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cellular
• homozygotes exhibit highly reduced Cytidine (C) to Uridine (U) editing of Apob RNA relative to wild-type controls
• Western blot of protein extracts from the small intestine of adult homozygotes revealed that APOB100 (encoded by unedited mRNA) is the predominant APOB isoform, unlike in wild-type controls where APOB48 (encoded by edited Apob) is the main detectable isoform
• RT-PCR analysis confirmed a significant reduction in C to U editing of Apob RNA and other RNA molecules that are potential targets of this post-transcriptional modification in the small intestine, while their level of gene expression was not changed
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