Selective expression of an aP2/Fatty Acid Binding Protein4-Cre transgene in non-adipogenic tissues during embryonic development (original) (raw)

Abstract

Mouse strains expressing the site-specific Cre recombinase facilitate conditional ablation or activation of genomic sequences when one or several exons of a gene of interest are flanked by loxP sites. Recently, several strains targeting Cre expression to adipocytes have been developed using promoter sequences from the aP2 (Fatty Acid Binding Protein 4, FABP4) gene for adipose tissue-specific gene expression studies. aP2/FABP4 is predominantly expressed in adipose tissue, and while this promoter provides adipocyte-restricted expression postnatally, its expression throughout embryonic development had not been previously characterized. In this report, we demonstrate that the aP2-Cre transgene is expressed and consistently localized within the embryo from mid-gestation stage 9.5 dpc. By 15.5 dpc, β-gal activity was detected primarily in the brown adipose tissue, trigeminal ganglia, dorsal root ganglia, cartilage primordia and vertebrae. Immunofluorescence staining for Cre recombinase and FABP4 protein showed a corresponding staining pattern similar to that of β-gal, confirming that Cre recombinase was produced in the transgenic line at late stages of development, and overlapped with endogenous aP2/FABP4 production. Further, fat-specific oil red O staining of tissue sections validated the presence of lipids in the stained tissues indicating that adipocytes and/or adipocyte-like cells were indeed present in these tissues. This is the first report to our knowledge to describe and confirm aP2/FABP4 promoter expression in this transgenic line during development in the mouse embryo and indicates that aP2/FABP4 expression occurs not only in mature adipocytes, but has a wider embryonic expression pattern than previously appreciated.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Yaacov Barak for helpful discussions and critiques regarding the aP2-Cre transgenic mouse line, sequence information for the aP2-Cre PCR primers and critical review of the manuscript, and Dr. Jeong Kyo Yoon for helpful discussions during these studies. This work was supported by NIH grants R01HL070865 (L.L.), grant P20RR15555 from the National Center for Research Resources (Robert Friesel, L.L.) and grant R15DK070599 to Deena J. Small. We acknowledge the services of our Mouse Transgenic Core Facility (P20RR15555) and Pathology Core Facility (Kathleen Carrier and Volkhard Lindner), which is supported by a grant from the National Center for Research Resources (P20RR18789, D. Wojchowski).

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Center for Molecular Medicine, Maine Medical Center Research Institute, 81 Research Drive, Scarborough, Maine, 04074, USA
   Sumithra Urs, Anne Harrington & Lucy Liaw
2. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of New Hampshire, 389 Rudman Hall, Durham, New Hampshire, 03824, USA
   Deena Small

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1. Sumithra Urs
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2. Anne Harrington
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3. Lucy Liaw
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4. Deena Small
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Correspondence toDeena Small.

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Lucy Liaw and Deena Small contributed equally to this work

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Urs, S., Harrington, A., Liaw, L. et al. Selective expression of an aP2/Fatty Acid Binding Protein4-Cre transgene in non-adipogenic tissues during embryonic development.Transgenic Res 15, 647–653 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-006-9000-z

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• Received: 09 January 2006
• Accepted: 09 April 2006
• Published: 02 September 2006
• Issue Date: October 2006
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-006-9000-z

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