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Updated: Aug 15, 2026
Transpupillary Two-Photon In Vivo Imaging of the Mouse Retina
Published on: February 13, 2021
Transgenic mice expressing Cre-recombinase specifically in retinal rod bipolar neurons
Xin-Mei Zhang1, Bai-Yu Chen, Alam Hoi-Lam Ng
1Department of Biochemistry, University of Hong Kong, SAR, China.
Purpose:
To establish a transgenic mouse line that expresses Cre-recombinase in retinal rod bipolar cells for the generation of rod bipolar cell-specific knockout mutants.
Methods:
The IRES-Cre-cDNA fragment was inserted into a 173-kb bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) carrying the intact Pcp2 gene, by using red-mediated recombineering. Transgenic mice were generated with the modified BAC and identified. The Cre-transgenic mice were crossed with ROSA26 and Z/EG reporter mice to detect Cre-recombinase activity.
Results:
X-gal staining showed that strong Cre-recombinase activities were present in retinal inner nuclear layers and cerebellar Purkinje cells. Double staining with an anti-GFP antibody and an anti-PKCalpha antibody (specific for retinal rod bipolar cells) revealed that Cre-recombinase activity localized exclusively to the rod bipolar cells in the retina.
Conclusions:
A mouse BAC-Pcp2-IRES-Cre transgenic line that expresses Cre-recombinase in retinal rod bipolar neurons has been established. Because mutations in some ubiquitously expressed genes may result in retinal degenerative diseases, the mouse strain BAC-Pcp2-IRES-Cre will be a useful new tool for investigating the effects of retinal rod bipolar cell-specific gene inactivation.
