Specific in vivo expression in type II pneumocytes of the Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus long terminal repeat in transgenic mice.

ABSTRACT: Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV) is the causative agent of ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma, a transmissible lung cancer in sheep. Previous experiments in differentiated murine tissue culture cell lines suggested that the disease specificity of JSRV for secretory lung epithelial cells (type II pneumocytes an Clara cells) reflects transcriptional specificity of the viral long terminal repeat (LTR) for these cells. To test this in vivo, transgenic mice carrying the bacterial beta-galactosidase (beta-Gal) gene driven by the JSRV LTR were generated. Two transgenic lines showed beta-Gal expression in the lungs but not other tissues of F1 animals, although transgene silencing in subsequent generations was a major problem. The cells expressing the transgene were identified by two- and three-color

SUBMITTER: Dakessian RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2323580 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature