title: Transgenic mice expressing tamoxifen-inducible Cre for somatic gene modification in renal epithelial cells.
abstract: Gene inactivation often leads to an embryonic-lethal phenotype. In focal diseases like renal cell carcinomas and polycystic kidney disease, somatic gene inactivation in subsets of cells is likely to occur at later stages. We generated a transgenic mouse line with an inducible form of Cre recombinase for conditional gene modifications in kidney epithelial cells. To this end a 1.4-kb promoter fragment of the kidney-specific cadherin gene (KspCad) was cloned upstream of a tamoxifen-inducible Cre recombinase (CreER(T2)) encoding sequence. Expression and activity of Cre was evaluated using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis and by crossbreeding to Z/EG reporter mice. One KspCad-CreER(T2) line showed kidney-specific Cre expression and mediated recombination upon tamoxifen treatment in Z/EG reporter mice. No reporter gene expression was detected in untreated animals or in extrarenal tissues upon treatment. Within the kidneys, enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) fluorescence was observed in epithelial cells in several nephronic segments. In addition, the system successfully recombined a floxed Pkd1 gene.
authors.affiliation: Leiden University Medical Center, Center for Human and Clinical Genetics, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Irma S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Lantinga-van Leeuwen
authors.forename: Wouter N
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: Leonhard
authors.forename: Annemieke
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van de Wal
authors.forename: Martijn H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Breuning
authors.forename: Sjef
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Verbeek
authors.forename: Emile
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Heer
authors.forename: Dorien J M
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Peters
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015820:Cadherins / Q000235:genetics; D004847:Epithelial Cells; D015870:Gene Expression; D018390:Gene Targeting / Q000379:methods*; D005804:Genes, Lethal; D019426:Integrases; D007668:Kidney / Q000166:cytology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic / Q000235:genetics; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D050396:TRPP Cation Channels; D013629:Tamoxifen / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins; D019426:Integrases; D050396:TRPP Cation Channels; D013629:Tamoxifen; C491946:Cdh16 protein, mouse; C045073:Cre recombinase