The role of RBC antigen transgene integration sites on RBC biology in mice

Transgenic mice expressing RBC specific antigens are widely used in mechanistic studies of RBC alloimmunization. Existing RBC donor strains have random transgene integration, potentially disrupting host elements that can confound biological interpretation.

Integration site and genomic alterations were characterized by both targeted locus amplification and congenic backcrossing in the five most commonly used RBC alloantigen donor strains (KEL-K2_hi , KEL-K2_med , and KEL-K2_lo , and KEL-K1). A targeted transgenic approach was developed to allow RBC specific transgene expression from a safe harbor locus (ROSA26). Alloimmune responses were assessed by transfusing alloantigen expressing RBCs into wild-type recipients and measuring alloantibodies by flow cytometry.

Four of the five analyzed strains had at least one gene disrupted by the transgene integration but none of the disrupted genes are known to be involved in RBC biology. The integration of KEL-K2_med potentially altered the immunological properties of RBCs, although the biological significance of the observed changes is unclear. The ROSA26 targeted approach resulted in a single copy of the transgene that maintains RBC specific expression without random disruption of genomic elements.

These findings provide a detailed characterization of genomic disruption by transgene integration found in commonly used RBC donor strains that is relevant to numerous previous publications as well as future studies. With the possible exception of KEL-K2_med , transgene integration is not predicted to affect RBC biology in existing models, and new models can avoid this concern using the described targeted transgenic approach.