GPC5 is developmentally expressed in a pattern consistent with its involvement in central nervous system, limb, and kidney development (Saunders et al. 1997). Because acute ethanol response is brain mediated, only brain expression patterns in mice were considered here in detail. Unlike the majority of glypican family members where expression in embryonic brain is much greater than in adult brain, GPC5 brain expression increases with embryonic age and is highest in adult tissue (Luxardi et al. 2007). GPC5′s embryonic brain expression is also more spatially restricted than the other glypicans; it is limited to the striatum primordium and ventral diencephalic wall starting about day 10 of embryogenesis (Luxardi et al. 2007). In adults, the greatest expression is seen in the caudate nucleus, the putamen, and the hippocampus (Saunders et al. 1997), structures thought to play a significant role in drug behavior (Koob and Volkow 2010). In flies, both dally and dlp are expressed in the nervous system during development and in adulthood (Chintapalli et al. 2007).
