title: Hoxb8-Cre mice: A tool for brain-sparing conditional gene deletion.
abstract: The spinal cord is the first site of temporal and spatial integration of nociceptive signals in the pain pathway. Neuroplastic changes occurring at this site contribute critically to various chronic pain syndromes. Gene targeting in mice has generated important insights into these processes. However, the analysis of constitutive (global) gene-deficient mice is often hampered by confounding effects arising from supraspinal sites. Here, we describe a novel Cre mouse line that expresses the Cre recombinase under the transcriptional control of the Hoxb8 gene. Within the neural axis of these mice, Hoxb8-Cre expression is found in spinal cord neurons and glial cells, and in virtually all neurons of the dorsal root ganglia, but spares the brain apart from a few cells in the spinal trigeminal nucleus. The Hoxb8-Cre mouse line should be a valuable new tool for the in vivo analysis of peripheral and spinal gene functions in pain pathways.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Witschi
authors.forename: Torbjörn
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.forename: Giannina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Morscher
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Scheurer
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deschamps
authors.forename: Hanns Ulrich
authors.initials: HU
authors.lastname: Zeilhofer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D005727:Ganglia, Spinal / Q000378:metabolism; D017353:Gene Deletion; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology; D018390:Gene Targeting; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009420:Nervous System / Q000378:metabolism; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000378:metabolism; D019076:Transgenes / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; C095822:Hoxb8 protein, mouse