Transgenic and knockout models in renin-angiotensin system.
The renin-angiotensin system, composed of enzymatic and signal-transduction cascades, plays a key role in the regulation of arterial blood pressure and in the development of certain forms of experimental and human hypertension. The products of this system, angiotensin peptides, exert a wide range of physiologically important effects on many tissues, including those of the cardiovascular systems, through their actions on angiotensin receptors. Molecular genetic and transgenic studies have begun to implicate some of the genes encoding components of the renin-angiotensin system in the development of cardiovascular diseases. Recently, we succeeded in generating transgenic mice with chronic hypertension and with inducible hypertension during pregnancy and in creating mice homozygous for a targeted disruption of the angiotensinogen gene (the only known precursor of angiotensins), resulting in the complete loss of angiotensin signals in vivo. Here, we will review recent advances related to the functional analysis of the renin-angiotensin system, in particular by focusing on transgenic approaches including gene targeting.
Murakami
K
K
Institute of Applied Biochemistry, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Fukamizu
A
A
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008954:Models, Biological; D012084:Renin-Angiotensin System / Q000235:genetics*