ACCELERATED COMMUNICATION RSK4 and PAK5 Are Novel Candidate Genes in Diabetic Rat

The orphan hepatic nuclear factor (HNF) HNF4 is of pivotal importance for liver development and hepatocellular differentia-tion and plays an essential role in a regulatory circuitry to control a wide range of metabolic processes. It also targets genes in other organs, including pancreas, kidney, intestine, and colon; pro-motes expression of an epithelial phenotype; triggers de novo formation of functional tight junctions; and contributes to epithelial cell polarity. In particular, HNF4 dysfunction leads to metabolic disorders, including diabetes. We used the chromatin immuno-precipitation (ChIP) cloning procedure and a bioinformatic ap-proach to search for candidate genes associated with impaired liver, pancreas, and kidney function. We identified two novel tar-gets regulated by HNF4, which participate in the control, at least in part, in cell-cycle regulation and are members of the mitogen