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Comparative analysis of CreER transgenic mice for the study of brain macrophages: A case study |
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| Authors: | Louise Chappell-Maor Masha Kolesnikov Jung-Seok Kim Anat Shemer Zhana Haimon Jonathan Grozovski Sigalit Boura-Halfon Takahiro Masuda Marco Prinz Steffen Jung |
| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Immunology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel;2. Institute of Neuropathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany;3. Institute of Neuropathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany Center for Basics in NeuroModulation (NeuroModulBasics), Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany Signalling Research Centres BIOSS and CIBSS, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany |
| Abstract: | Conditional mutagenesis and fate mapping have contributed considerably to our understanding of physiology and pathology. Specifically, Cre recombinase-based approaches allow the definition of cell type-specific contributions to disease development and of inter-cellular communication circuits in respective animal models. Here we compared Cx3cr1CreER and Sall1CreER transgenic mice and their use to decipher the brain macrophage compartment as a showcase to discuss recent technological advances. Specifically, we highlight the need to define the accuracy of Cre recombinase expression, as well as strengths and pitfalls of these particular systems that should be taken into consideration when applying these models. |
| Keywords: | conditional mutagenesis CreER fate mapping microglia recombination |