Targeting of the Enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein Reporter to Adrenergic Cells in Mice |
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Authors: | Jixiang Xia Namita Varudkar Candice N. Baker Ibrahim Abukenda Celines Martinez Aruna Natarajan Alexander Grinberg Karl Pfeifer Steven N. Ebert |
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Affiliation: | 1. Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Central Florida, 6900 Lake Nona Blvd, Orlando, FL, 32827-7047, USA 2. Department of Pediatrics, Medstar-Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC, USA 3. Program in Genomics of Differentiation, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
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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. |
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