title: Health status of transgenic pigs expressing the human complement regulatory protein CD59.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Microinjection of foreign DNA into pronuclei of zygotes has been the method of choice for the production of transgenic domestic animals. Following microinjection the transgene is randomly integrated into the host genome which can be associated with insertional mutagenesis and unwanted pathological side effects.
  
  
  METHODS
  Here, we evaluated the health status of pigs transgenic for the human regulator of complement activation (RCA) CD59 and conducted a complete pathomorphological examination on 19 RCA transgenic pigs at 1 to 32 months of age from nine transgenic lines. Nine wild-type animals served as controls. Expression levels of human complement regulator CD59 (hCD59) mRNA were measured by RT-PCR and distribution of hCD59 protein was determined by immunohistochemistry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Albeit variable transgene expression levels, no specific pathomorphologic phenotype associated with the presence of the transgene in all analyzed pig lines could be detected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Transgenic expression of this human RCA gene construct is not correlated with a specific pathological phenotype in pigs. This is crucial for the application of the technology and the use of transgenic pigs for biomedical and agricultural applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Deppenmeier
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bock
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mengel
authors.forename: Heiner
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Niemann
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kues
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lemme
authors.forename: Dagmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wirth
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wonigeit
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kreipe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018957:CD59 Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009928:Organ Specificity; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D034421:Sus scrofa / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis; D019076:Transgenes
chemical_list: D018957:CD59 Antigens