An antisense transgenic strategy to inhibit the myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein synthesis

To understand the function of the myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG), a myelin specific protein of the central nervous system, transgenic mice were produced. The transgene is a fusion gene containing 1.9 kb of murine myelin basic protein promoter, 430 bp of rat MOG cDNA in the reverse orientation and 4.5 kb of human proteolipid protein gene. In spite of high expression of antisense MOG mRNA in the oligodendrocytes, MOG synthesis was not inhibited in transgenic mice. This lack of inhibition of MOG underlines the difficulties encountered with antisense transgenic strategies.