Human cathepsinG-cre mice for myeloid-specific gene targeting

Abstract

The flexibility and success of conditional gene targeting depends on the availability of tissue or cell lineage specific expression of cre recombinase in mouse mutants. The human cathepsin G (hCG) gene is expressed exclusively in promyelocytes/ promonocytes and encodes a neutral serine protease that is package in the azurophil granules of myeloid cells. With the aim of studying human leukaemia using mutant mouse models, we attempted to generate an early myeloid cell-specific cre recombinase transgenic mouse line, hCG-cre, using the hCG promoter. A DNA construct with the cre gene inserted upstream of the coding region of a hCG genomic fragment was used for transgenic mouse production. To assess the tissue specificity and efficiency of the cre recombinase in the hCG-cre mouse line, we would cross the hCG-cre mice with the Z/AP reporter mouse line. The activity and specificity of the alkaline phosphatase reporter in the bone marrow and peripheral blood of the double mutant mice will be examined.