Functional Imaging of Rel Expression in Inflammatory Processes Using Bioluminescence Imaging System in Transgenic Mice.

Functional imaging of rel expression in inflammatory processes using bioluminescence imaging system in transgenic mice.

PLoS One. 2013; 8(2): e57632
Yang X, Jing H, Zhao K, Sun R, Liu Z, Ying Y, Ci L, Kuang Y, Huang F, Wang Z, Fei J

c-Rel plays important roles in many inflammatory diseases. Revealing the dynamic expression of c-Rel in disease processes in vivo is critical for understanding c-Rel functions and for developing anti-inflammatory drugs. In this paper, a transgenic mouse line, B6-Tg(c-Rel-luc), which incorporated the transgene firefly luciferase driven by a 14.5-kb fragment containing mouse c-Rel gene promoter, was generated to monitor expression in vivo. Luciferase expression could be tracked in living mice by the method of bioluminescence imaging in a variety of inflammatory processes, including LPS induced sepsis and EAE disease model. The luciferase expression in transgenic mice was comparable to the endogenous expression and could be suppressed by administration of anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone or aspirin. These results indicate that the B6-Tg(c-Rel-luc) mouse is a valuable animal model to study expression in physiological and pathological processes, and the effects of various drug treatments in vivo. HubMed – drug