Title

Targeting Of The Enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein Reporter To Adrenergic Cells In Mice

Keywords

Adrenal medulla; Chromaffin cells; Green fluorescent protein; Knock-in; Phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase

Abstract

Adrenaline and noradrenaline are important neurotransmitter hormones that mediate physiological stress responses in adult mammals, and are essential for cardiovascular function during a critical period of embryonic/fetal development. In this study, we describe a novel mouse model system for identifying and characterizing adrenergic cells. Specifically, we generated a reporter mouse strain in which a nuclear-localized enhanced green fluorescent protein gene (nEGFP) was inserted into exon 1 of the gene encoding Phenylethanolamine n-methyltransferase (Pnmt), the enzyme responsible for production of adrenaline from noradrenaline. Our analysis demonstrates that this knock-in mutation effectively marks adrenergic cells in embryonic and adult mice. We see expression of nEGFP in Pnmt-expressing cells of the adrenal medulla in adult animals. We also note that nEGFP expression recapitulates the restricted expression of Pnmt in the embryonic heart. Finally, we show that nEGFP and Pnmt expressions are each induced in parallel during the in vitro differentiation of pluripotent mouse embryonic stem cells into beating cardiomyocytes. Thus, this new mouse genetic model should be useful for the identification and functional characterization of adrenergic cells in vitro and in vivo. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Publication Date

6-1-2013

Publication Title

Molecular Biotechnology

Volume

54

Issue

2

Number of Pages

350-360

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12033-012-9570-3

Socpus ID

84882863306 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84882863306

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