title: Mispairing C57BL/6 substrains of genetically engineered mice and wild-type controls can lead to confounding results as it did in studies of JNK2 in acetaminophen and concanavalin A liver injury.
abstract: C57BL/6 mice are widely used in biomedical research for the background of genetically engineered mice (GEM) and wild-type controls with the belief that the genetic background of GEM and control mice differ significantly by only one or more altered genes. This principle, however, does have limitations due in part to the existence of multiple substrains of C57BL/6 mice that should not be used interchangeably as they can differ both genetically and phenotypically. We show here that these mispairings do occur frequently and can lead to inaccurate and conflicting findings.
authors.affiliation: Molecular and Cellular Toxicology Section, Laboratory of Molecular Immunology, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1760, United States. bourdim@nhlbi.nih.gov
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bourdi
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Lance R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Pohl
mesh_terms: D000082:Acetaminophen / Q000633:toxicity*; D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic / Q000633:toxicity*; D000818:Animals; D056486:Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D003208:Concanavalin A / Q000633:toxicity*; D055785:Gene Knockdown Techniques; D005838:Genotype; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL / Q000235:genetics*; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D008822:Mice, Transgenic / Q000235:genetics*; D048056:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 9 / Q000235:genetics*; D008934:Mitogens / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic; D008934:Mitogens; D003208:Concanavalin A; D000082:Acetaminophen; D048056:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 9