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Updated: Jul 19, 2026
A Mouse Model to Assess Innate Immune Response to Staphylococcus aureus Infection
Published on: February 28, 2019
[Effect of human beta defensin 2 on Staphylococcus aureus infection: in vivo study with transgenic mice]
Shu Zhang1, Ning Huang, Xin-yu Zhao
1Research Unit of Infection and Immunology, West China School of Preclinical Medicine and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Objective:
To investigate the effect of human beta defensin 2 (HBD-2) on Staphylococcus aureus infection.
Methods:
A minigene of HBD-2 containing pCMV promoter, full length of HBD-2 cDNA, and BGH polyA tail was generated by PCR amplification and introduced into the fertilized oocytes of C57/ICR hybridized mouse by microinjection. After gestation of 3 - 4 weeks, immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of HBD-2 peptide in different tissues of the transgenic young mice. Staphylococcus aureus was cultured and injected intraperitoneally to wild type mice and transgenic mice to observe their surviving status.
Results:
PCR showed that the HBD-2 fragment had been successfully integrated into the chromosome of the mice. A widespread expression of HBD-2 gene was found in many tissues of the transgenic mice: trachea, lung, intestine, esophagus, testis, spleen, skin, endothelium, brain, etc. Four of the 7 transgenic mice survived the Staphylococcus aureus infection, and 10 wild type mice all died within 24 hours.
Conclusion:
HBD-2 may play an important role ion the host defense against Staphylococcus aureus infection.
