title: Manipulation of T cell function and conditional gene targeting in T cells.
abstract: Cre-Lox recombination is known as a site-specific recombinase technology, and is widely used to carry out modification at specific sites in the DNA of cells. The system consists of an enzyme, Cre recombinase, that recombines a pair of short target sequences, the lox sites. The Cre-Lox system can be used to activate or repress a gene depending on the placement of the lox sites. Placing the Cre recombinase under the control of a cell-specific promoter allows expression only in specific cells or cellular subsets, thus providing a powerful tool for analysis of gene function at specific developmental or physiological niches. Nowadays almost every aspect of T cell biology can be approached by a specific Cre model. This powerful tool allows scientists to overcome the limitations of gene-deficient animals and target a gene of interest specifically in T cell or T cell subsets by appropriate placement of the lox sites. Here we describe the main Cre lines that enable gene targeting in T helper cells or CD4 T cell subsets, and the most common methods of assessing the recombination efficiency.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Experimental Immunology, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sledzińska
authors.forename: Lynsey
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fairbairn
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Buch
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017353:Gene Deletion; D018390:Gene Targeting / Q000379:methods*; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D019426:Integrases / Q000235:genetics*; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000235:genetics; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D013629:Tamoxifen / Q000494:pharmacology; D015533:Transcriptional Activation / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D013629:Tamoxifen; C045073:Cre recombinase; D019426:Integrases