Proteins In Knockout Mice Research Articles

Adaptive genetic mechanisms in mammalian Parp1 locus.

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) is a highly conserved nuclear protein in multicellular organisms that by modulating chromatin opening facilitates gene expression during development. All reported Parp1 null knockout mouse strains are viable with no developmental anomalies. It was believed that functional redundancy with other PARP family members, mainly PARP2, explains such a controversy. However, while PARP2 has similar catalytic domain to PARP1, it lacks other domains, making the absence of developmental problems in Parp1 mice knockouts unlikely. Contrary to prior assumptions, in our analysis of the best-investigated Parp1 knockout mouse strain, we identified persistent mRNA expression, albeit at reduced levels. Transcript analysis revealed an alternatively spliced Parp1 variant lacking exon 2. Subsequent protein analysis confirmed the existence of a truncated PARP1 protein in knockout mice. The decreased level of poly(ADP-ribose) (pADPr) was detected in Parp1 knockout embryonic stem (ES) cells with western blotting analysis, but immunofluorescence staining did not detect any difference in distribution or level of pADPr in nuclei of knockout ES cells. pADPr level in double Parp1 Parg mutant ES cells greatly exceeded its amount in normal and even in hypomorph Parg mutant ES cells, suggesting the presence of functionally active PARP1. Therefore, our findings challenge the conventional understanding of PARP1 depletion effects.

Morquio A Syndrome: Identification of Differential Patterns of Molecular Pathway Interactions in Bone Lesions.

Mucopolysaccharidosis type IVA (MPS IVA; Morquio A syndrome) is a rare autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disease (LSD) caused by deficiency of a hydrolase enzyme, N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate sulfatase, and characterized clinically by mainly musculoskeletal manifestations. The mechanisms underlying bone involvement in humans are typically explored using invasive techniques such as bone biopsy, which complicates analysis in humans. We compared bone proteomes using DDA and SWATH-MS in wild-type and MPS IVA knockout mice (UNT) to obtain mechanistic information about the disease. Our findings reveal over 1000 dysregulated proteins in knockout mice, including those implicated in oxidative phosphorylation, oxidative stress (reactive oxygen species), DNA damage, and iron transport, and suggest that lactate dehydrogenase may constitute a useful prognostic and follow-up biomarker. Identifying biomarkers that reflect MPS IVA clinical course, severity, and progression have important implications for disease management.

Protein Kinase B2 (PKB2/AKT2) Is Essential for Host Protection in CVB3-Induced Acute Viral Myocarditis.

Protein kinase B2 (AKT2) is involved in various cardiomyocyte signaling processes, including those important for survival and metabolism. Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) is one of the most common pathogens that cause myocarditis in humans. The role of AKT2 in CVB3 infection is not yet well understood. We used a cardiac-specific AKT2 knockout (KO) mouse to determine the role of AKT2 in CVB3-mediated myocarditis. CVB3 was injected intraperitoneally into wild-type (WT) and KO mice. The mice’s survival rate was recorded: survival in KO mice was significantly decreased compared with WT mice (WT vs. KO: 73.3 vs. 27.1%). Myocardial damage and inflammation were significantly increased in the hearts of KO mice compared with those of WT mice. Moreover, from surface ECG, AKT2 KO mice showed a prolonged atria and ventricle conduction time (PR interval, WT vs. KO: 47.27 ± 1.17 vs. 64.79 ± 7.17 ms). AKT2 deletion induced severe myocarditis and cardiac dysfunction due to CVB3 infection. According to real-time PCR, the mRNA level of IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-α decreased significantly in KO mice compared with WT mice on Days 5 after infection. In addition, innate immune response antiviral effectors, Type I interferon (interferon-α and β), and p62, were dramatically suppressed in the heart of KO mice. In particular, the adult cardiac myocytes isolated from the heart showed high induction of TLR4 protein in KO mice in comparison with WT. AKT2 deletion suppressed the activation of Type I interferon and p62 transcription in CVB3 infection. In cardiac myocytes, AKT2 is a key signaling molecule for the heart from damage through the activation of innate immunity during acute myocarditis.

NHERF1 loss results in metabolic stress and increased susceptibility to cisplatin‐induced acute kidney injury

BackgroundAcute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with a high mortality rate and develops in 30% of patients who receive cisplatin. The sodium hydrogen regulatory factor isoform 1 (NHERF1) is a scaffolding protein that anchors multiple membrane proteins, in renal proximal tubules. We have recently demonstrated that NHERF1 loss results in changes in mitochondrial protein abundance and function.HypothesisWe hypothesize that NHERF1 loss increases susceptibility to AKI through an underlying metabolic stress.Materials and MethodsWe treated 2 month old male and female wild type (WT) C57BL/6 and NHERF1 knock out (KO) mice with vehicle (VEH) or cisplatin (CIS) (20 mg/kg dose IP) and euthanized after 72 hours. Blood was collected for blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels. Urine was collected for NGAL. Kidneys were harvested for histology, TUNEL assay, and Western Blot for cleaved caspase 3. Proteomic analysis was conducted on kidney brush border membrane (BBM) of WT and KO kidneys. Metabolic measurements were conducted via the XF Flux analyzer on non‐treated primary proximal tubule cell cultures. Three‐way ANOVA was used to compare the different treatment groups. Ordinal regression was performed for the semi‐quantitative scoring. All statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS software. P values of <0.05 were considered statistically significant.ResultsCIS caused significantly greater severity of kidney injury in KO compared to WT mice by semi‐quantitative injury score (WT: 1.89, KO: 2.8), BUN levels (WT: 97.8 mg/dL +/− 10.1, KO: 151.8 mg/dL +/− 17.2) and NGAL protein (WT: 2.7 μg/mL +/− 0.53, KO: 55.6 μg/mL +/−21.3). Apoptosis markers were significantly increased in CIS treated KO and WT mice compared to respective controls. Proteomic comparison of BBM protein expression in WT and KO showed marked changes in the expression of mitochondrial proteins in KO mice, suggesting alterations in cell metabolism. KO proximal tubule cells also exhibited decreases of 35% in glycolytic reserve capacity, 40% in baseline mitochondrial respiration rate, 37% in ATP‐linked mitochondrial respiration rate, 40% in mitochondrial reserve capacity, and 40% in maximum mitochondrial capacity.ConclusionsWe conclude that the KO mice have increased susceptibility to CIS‐induced AKI, which may be due to altered metabolism and/or mitochondrial dysfunction.Support or Funding InformationFunding for this research was provided by VA and UofL School of Medicine (to EDL).This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Renal corpuscle and tubule morphology in ephrin-A2-/-, ephrin-A5-/- and ephrin-A2A5-/- mice

The B family of Eph receptor tyrosine kinases and their ephrin ligands, best known for their role in the development of the nervous and vascular systems, have recently been implicated in mammalian kidney development and maintenance. However, the renal expression and function of the EphA and ephrin-A families have not been investigated. We performed immunohistochemistry for ephrin-A2 and ephrin-A5 in kidneys of normal adult wildtype (WT) mice and carried out quantitative morphological analysis of renal corpuscles and tubules in haematoxylin- and eosin-stained sections of WT, ephrin-A2-/-, ephrin-A5-/-and ephrin-A2A5-/-(knockout) mice. Ephrin-A2 and ephrin-A5 were strongly expressed in the tubules and glomeruli of the adult mouse kidney. Despite the significant overlap in expression between the two proteins, only the lack of ephrin-A5 had an effect on kidney morphology with glomerular size being mildly reduced in mice lacking the gene for ephrin-A5. However, the magnitude of this change was very small and could only be detected when animals were pooled across genotypes lacking ephrin-A5. The subtle phenotype, together with the relatively infrequent incidence of kidney failure in our breeding colony, suggest that ephrin-A2 and ephrin-A5 play only minor roles in kidney development and function. It is likely that other members of the ephrin-A family are expressed in the mouse kidney and redundancy within this large family of “promiscuous” signalling molecules may compensate for the loss of individual proteins in knockout mice.

Fatty Acid Transport Protein CD36 Is Essential For The Training-induced Increase In Fatty Acid Oxidation.

Exercise training induces metabolic changes in skeletal muscle, among which is an increase in fatty acid oxidation. Whether CD36, the protein responsible for the majority of fatty acid uptake into muscle tissue, is upregulated in response to exercise training is unclear. We hypothesize that a training-induced increase in muscle CD36 is required to observe the training-induced increase in fatty acid oxidation, as this would permit a greater influx of fatty acids to be oxidized. PURPOSE: To determine the role of CD36 in the training-induced adaptations to fatty acid oxidation. METHODS: CD36 knockout (KO) and wild type (WT) mice were treadmill trained for 6 weeks (0.5 h/day at 17m/min, 5 days/week for 2 weeks, then increasing to 1h/day, 5days/week). After training, soleus and EDL muscles were incubated in vitro, and rates of fatty acid esterification and oxidation (caffeine-stimulated, 3mM) were determined in sedentary and trained WT and CD36-KO mice. Activities of citrate synthase (CS) and b-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase (b-HAD) and several fatty acid transporters (Western blotting) were also determined in all mice. RESULTS: The training-induced increase in mitochondrial biogenesis was comparable in WT and CD36-KO mice, as shown by their similar increase in CS activity (p < 0.05). However, b-HAD increased only in WT mice (p < 0.05). Caffeine stimulation increased fatty acid oxidation in muscles of sedentary WT and CD36-KO mice (p < 0.05). However, only the WT mice, not CD36-KO mice, showed an increased response to caffeine-stimulated palmitate oxidation after training (p < 0.05). In addition, CD36 was increased in muscles of WT mice following training (p < 0.05), and there was no detectable CD36 protein in KO mice. Other fatty acid transporters, FABPpm and FATP1 were increased (p < 0.05) in both WT and KO mice. CONCLUSIONS: Although the classical marker of training-induced muscle adaptation (increased CS activity) occurred in both WT and CD36 KO mice, the trained muscles of CD36-KO mice were unable to increase their capacity for fatty acid oxidation. Therefore, CD36 is required for the training-induced increase in fatty acid oxidation in muscle.

Role of AQP1 in endotoxemia-induced acute kidney injury

The effect of endotoxemia (lipopolysaccharide, 2.5 mg/kg ip) was investigated in aquaporin (AQP) 1 knockout (KO) compared with wild-type (WT) mice. At baseline, KO mice exhibited higher water intake (WI) and urine output (UO). After endotoxemia, WI and UO remained higher in the KO than WT mice, and urine osmolality was lower. The higher serum osmolality in AQP1-KO mice during endotoxemia was associated with higher AQP2 (133 +/- 8 vs. 100 +/- 3%, P < 0.01), AQP3 (140 +/- 8 vs. 100 +/- 4%, P < 0.001) and Na(+)-K(+)-2Cl(-) cotransporter type 2 (NKCC2; 152 +/- 14 vs. 100 +/- 15%, P < 0.05) expression than that in WT mice. These responses during endotoxemia in the AQP1-KO mice compared with WT were associated with lower glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (69 +/- 8 vs. 96 +/- 8 ml/min, P < 0.05) and renal blood flow (0.77 +/- 0.1 vs. 1.01 +/- 0.1 ml/min, P < 0.01). Urinary sodium excretion and fractional sodium excretion were higher in KO compared with WT mice in endotoxemia and were accompanied by more severe tubular injury. With water repletion and comparable serum osmolalities, GFR was still lower in KO (57 +/- 13 vs. 120 +/- 6 ml/min, P < 0.01) compared with WT during endotoxemia. The abundance of AQP2 and AQP3 protein in KO mice was not different from WT mice; however, NKCC2, Na(+)/H(+) exchanger type 3, and fractional sodium excretion remained higher in KO compared with WT. Thus the polyuria in AQP1-KO mice does not protect against endotoxemia-induced acute kidney injury but rather absence of AQP1 predisposed to enhanced endotoximic renal injury.

Binding of pulmonary surfactant proteins to carbon nanotubes; potential for damage to lung immune defense mechanisms

Potential pulmonary toxicity of carbon nanotubes is a research area that has received considerable attention. Surfactant proteins A and D (SP-A and SP-D) are collectin proteins that are secreted by airway epithelial cells in the lung. They play an important role in first-line defense against infection within the lung. The aim of this study was to investigate the interaction between carbon nanotubes and proteins contained in lung surfactant. By using sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), Western Blotting, a novel technique of affinity chromatography based on carbon nanotube–Sepharose matrix [1] and electron microscopy data it was shown that SP-A and SP-D selectively bind to carbon nanotubes. The binding was Ca2+-ion dependent, and was variable between batches of nanotubes. It was therefore likely to be mediated by surface impurities or chemical modifications of the nanotubes. Chronic level exposure to carbon nanotubes may result in sequestration of SP-D and SP-A. Absence of these proteins in knockout mice leads to susceptibility to lung infection and emphysema.

Uroguanylin knockout mice have increased blood pressure and impaired natriuretic response to enteral NaCl load

Guanylin and uroguanylin, peptides synthesized in the intestine and kidney, have been postulated to have both paracrine and endocrine functions, forming a potential enteric-renal link to coordinate salt ingestion with natriuresis. To explore the in vivo role of uroguanylin in the regulation of sodium excretion, we created gene-targeted mice in which uroguanylin gene expression had been ablated. Northern and Western analysis confirmed the absence of uroguanylin message and protein in knockout mice, and cGMP levels were decreased in the mucosa of the small intestine. Ussing chamber analysis of jejunum revealed that Na+/H+ exchanger-mediated Na+ absorption and tissue conductance was not altered in the knockout animals, but short-circuit current, an index of electrogenic anion secretion, was reduced. Renal clearance measurements showed that uroguanylin deficiency results in impaired ability to excrete an enteral load of NaCl, primarily due to an inappropriate increase in renal Na+ reabsorption. Finally, telemetric recordings of blood pressure demonstrated increased mean arterial pressure in uroguanylin knockout animals that was independent of the level of dietary salt intake. Together, these findings establish a role for uroguanylin in an enteric-renal communication axis as well as a fundamental principle of this axis in the maintenance of salt homeostasis in vivo.

Uroguanylin knockout mice have increased blood pressure and impaired natriuretic response to enteral NaCl load

Guanylin and uroguanylin, peptides synthesized in the intestine and kidney, have been postulated to have both paracrine and endocrine functions, forming a potential enteric-renal link to coordinate salt ingestion with natriuresis. To explore the in vivo role of uroguanylin in the regulation of sodium excretion, we created gene-targeted mice in which uroguanylin gene expression had been ablated. Northern and Western analysis confirmed the absence of uroguanylin message and protein in knockout mice, and cGMP levels were decreased in the mucosa of the small intestine. Ussing chamber analysis of jejunum revealed that Na+/H+ exchanger–mediated Na+ absorption and tissue conductance was not altered in the knockout animals, but short-circuit current, an index of electrogenic anion secretion, was reduced. Renal clearance measurements showed that uroguanylin deficiency results in impaired ability to excrete an enteral load of NaCl, primarily due to an inappropriate increase in renal Na+ reabsorption. Finally, telemetric recordings of blood pressure demonstrated increased mean arterial pressure in uroguanylin knockout animals that was independent of the level of dietary salt intake. Together, these findings establish a role for uroguanylin in an enteric-renal communication axis as well as a fundamental principle of this axis in the maintenance of salt homeostasis in vivo.

Post-Transcriptional Regulation of Human Iron Metabolism by Iron Regulatory Proteins

ABSTRACT In mammalian iron metabolism, ferritin, transferrin receptor and several other iron metabolism genes are post-transcriptionally regulated. Iron regulatory proteins 1 and 2 are cytosolic proteins that bind to RNA stem-loops known as iron-responsive elements in several transcripts. We have studied the role of these proteins in knockout mice and discovered that misregulation of iron metabolism can be a primary cause of neurodegeneration.

Interactions of CCCH Zinc Finger Proteins with mRNA: TRISTETRAPROLIN-MEDIATED AU-RICH ELEMENT-DEPENDENT mRNA DEGRADATION CAN OCCUR IN THE ABSENCE OF A POLY(A) TAIL

The CCCH family of tandem zinc finger proteins has recently been shown to promote the turnover of certain mRNAs containing class II AU-rich elements (AREs). In the case of one member of this family, tristetraprolin (TTP), absence of the protein in knockout mice leads to stabilization of two mRNAs containing AREs of this type, those encoding tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. To begin to decipher the mechanism by which these zinc finger proteins stimulate the breakdown of this class of mRNAs, we co-transfected TTP and its related CCCH proteins into 293 cells with vectors encoding full-length TNFalpha, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and interleukin-3 mRNAs. Co-expression of the CCCH proteins caused the rapid turnover of these ARE-containing mRNAs and also promoted the accumulation of stable breakdown intermediates that were truncated at the 3'-end of the mRNA, even further 5' than the 5'-end of the poly(A) tail. To determine whether an intact poly(A) tail was necessary for TTP to promote this type of mRNA degradation, we inserted the TNFalpha ARE into a nonpolyadenylated histone mRNA and also attached a histone 3'-end-processing sequence to the 3'-end of nonpolyadenylated interleukin-3 and TNFalpha mRNAs. In all three cases, TTP stimulated the turnover of the ARE-containing mRNAs, despite the demonstrated absence of a poly(A) tail. These studies indicate that members of this class of CCCH proteins can promote class II ARE-containing mRNA turnover even in the absence of a poly(A) tail, suggesting that the processive removal of the poly(A) tail may not be required for this type of CCCH protein-stimulated mRNA turnover.

DNA excision repair pathways

The major DNA excision repair pathways of base excision repair for endogenous DNA lesions and nucleotide excision repair for DNA damage inflicted by ultraviolet light have been reconstructed with purified mammalian proteins and details of these repair mechanisms are emerging. Similar data are becoming available with regard to mismatch repair for correction of replication errors. Deletion of individual DNA repair proteins in knockout mice provides information on the roles of such factors in vivo and recent three-dimensional structures of several repair enzymes explain there detailed modes of action.