Disruption of Rest Leads to the Early Onset of Cataracts with the Aberrant Terminal Differentiation of Lens Fiber Cells.

ABSTRACT: REST (RE1-silencing transcription factor, also called Nrsf) is involved in the maintenance of the undifferentiated state of neuronal stem/progenitor cells in vitro by preventing precocious expression of neuronal genes. REST expression was then decreased in developing neurons to down-regulate neuronal genes which allow their maturation. However, the function of REST during neurogenesis in vivo remains to be elucidated because of the early embryonic lethal phenotype of conventional Rest knockout mice. In order to investigate the role of REST in ocular tissues, we generated and examined the mice evoking genetic ablation to Rest specifically to neural tissues including ocular tissue. We used a Sox1-Cre allele to excise the floxed Rest gene in the early neural tissues including the lens and ret

SUBMITTER: Aoki H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5025245 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature