Wu Fiona
Department of Clinical Sciences, Bristol University, Bristol, UK.
Nephron Physiol. 2007;107(1):p10-6. doi: 10.1159/000106483. Epub 2007 Jul 26.
Conditional gene targeting utilising the Cre/loxP system, which allows spatial and temporal control of gene expression, has been increasingly used to study gene function in vivo. The ability to limit gene disruption to a particular cell type and/or to control the timing of gene targeting overcomes some of the limitations associated with conventional targeting and total knockout of a gene, namely, potential embryonic lethality and complicated phenotype affecting multiple tissues. Although the application of this approach to the kidney is relatively recent, it has already proven to enhance our ability to study the developmental, physiological, and pathological processes in the kidney: dissecting the roles of several proteins in complex homeostatic systems, uncovering novel actions of proteins, and establishing models of kidney diseases. As the number of kidney-specific Cre mouse strains increases, this strategy will allow increasingly specific and complicated biological questions in the kidney to be addressed.
利用Cre/loxP系统的条件性基因打靶能够实现基因表达的时空控制，已越来越多地用于体内研究基因功能。将基因破坏限制在特定细胞类型和/或控制基因打靶时间的能力克服了与传统基因打靶和基因完全敲除相关的一些局限性，即潜在的胚胎致死性以及影响多个组织的复杂表型。尽管这种方法在肾脏中的应用相对较新，但已证明它能增强我们研究肾脏发育、生理和病理过程的能力：剖析几种蛋白质在复杂稳态系统中的作用、揭示蛋白质的新作用以及建立肾脏疾病模型。随着肾脏特异性Cre小鼠品系数量的增加，该策略将使越来越多关于肾脏的特定且复杂的生物学问题得以解决。
