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- Title
Increased Specific Labeling of INS-1 Pancreatic Beta-Cell by Using RIP-Driven Cre Mutants with Reduced Activity.
- Authors
Gong, Gen-cheng; Fan, Wen-zhu; Li, Di-zheng; Tian, Xiong; Chen, Shao-jun; Fu, Yu-cai; Xu, Wen-can; Wei, Chi-ju
- Abstract
Ectopically expressed Cre recombinase in extrapancreatic tissues in RIP-Cre mice has been well documented. The objective of this study was to find a simple solution that allows for improved beta-cell specific targeting. To this end, the RIP-Cre and reporter CMV-loxP-DsRed-loxP-EGFP expression cassettes were configurated into a one-plasmid and two-plasmid systems, which labeled approximately 80% insulin-positive INS-1 cells after 48 h transfection. However, off-target labeling was robustly found in more than 15% insulin-negative Ad293 cells. When an IRES element was inserted in front of Cre to reduce the translation efficiency, the ratio of recombination between INS-1 and Ad293 cells increased 3-4-fold. Further, a series of Cre mutants were generated by site-directed mutagenesis. When one of the mutants, Cre(H289P) in both configurations, was used in the experiment, the percentage of recombination dropped to background levels in a number of insulin-negative cell lines, but decreased only slightly in INS-1 cells. Consistently, DNA substrate digestion assay showed that the enzymatic activity of Cre(H289P) was reduced by 30-fold as compared to that of wild-type. In this study, we reported the generation of constructs containing RIP and Cre mutants, which enabled enhanced beta-cell specific labeling in vitro. These tools could be invaluable for beta-cell targeting and to the study of islet development.
- Subjects
PANCREATIC beta cells; RECOMBINASES; SITE-specific mutagenesis; INSULIN; REPORTER genes; GENE expression
- Publication
PLoS ONE, 2015, Vol 10, Issue 6, p1
- ISSN
1932-6203
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0129092