Liver cancer is one of the most threatening diseases in Chinese population. Just like in other tissues, tumor initiation and development in liver involve multiple steps of genetic and epigenetic alterations with sever...Liver cancer is one of the most threatening diseases in Chinese population. Just like in other tissues, tumor initiation and development in liver involve multiple steps of genetic and epigenetic alterations with several unknown details. However, unlike in other tissues, a tissue specific inducible Cre recombinase system that allows temporal and spatial deletion of a target DNA fragment is still not available for in vivo functional gene annotation in hepatocytes. In our pursuit to establish such a mouse model, we designed a dual inducible Cre transgene system and tested it in cultured cells. By combining a CCAAT/enhancer binding protein β （C/EBP β） promoter derived Tet-off expression system and the estrogen receptor （ER） mediated functional control, we show a desirable profile of both hepatocyte-specificity and regulability of the Cre expression in a series of critical assessments in the cell culture system, which provides confidence in continuation of our ongoing pursuit in mouse.展开更多
基金supported by Shanghai Science Foundation grants,National Science Foundation of China(No.30570850 and 10574134)National Research Program for Basic Research of China(No.2004CB518804)+1 种基金National Research Program for High Technology(No.2006AA02Z-320 and 2006AA 02Z197)European 6th Program(LSHBCT-2005-019067).
文摘Liver cancer is one of the most threatening diseases in Chinese population. Just like in other tissues, tumor initiation and development in liver involve multiple steps of genetic and epigenetic alterations with several unknown details. However, unlike in other tissues, a tissue specific inducible Cre recombinase system that allows temporal and spatial deletion of a target DNA fragment is still not available for in vivo functional gene annotation in hepatocytes. In our pursuit to establish such a mouse model, we designed a dual inducible Cre transgene system and tested it in cultured cells. By combining a CCAAT/enhancer binding protein β （C/EBP β） promoter derived Tet-off expression system and the estrogen receptor （ER） mediated functional control, we show a desirable profile of both hepatocyte-specificity and regulability of the Cre expression in a series of critical assessments in the cell culture system, which provides confidence in continuation of our ongoing pursuit in mouse.
