Characterization of Cre recombinase  mouse lines enabling cell type-specific targeting of postnatal intervertebral discs.

ABSTRACT: Cre/loxP technology is an important tool for studying cell type-specific gene functions. Cre recombinase mouse lines, including Agc1-CreER^T2 , Col2a1-Cre; Col2a1-CreER^T2 , Shh-Cre, Shh-CreER^T2 , and Osx-Cre, have been proven to be valuable tools to elucidate the biology of long bones, yet the information for their activity in postnatal intervertebral disc (IVD) tissues was very limited. In this study, we used R26-mTmG fluorescent reporter to systematically analyze cell specificity and targeting efficiency of these six mouse lines in IVD tissues at postnatal growing and adult stages. We found that Agc1-CreER^T2 is effective to direct recombination in all components of IVDs, including annulus fibrosus (AF), nucleus pulposus (NP), and cartilaginous e

SUBMITTER: Zheng Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6650379 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature