Videos of Kidney Cancer Mouse Models

Bhd-Ksp Kindey Cancer mouse model

I developed a few kidney cancer knockout mouse models, which were supposed to generate kidney cancer because a gene that could suppress tumor formation has been disrupted. The following mouse models are kideny-specific knockout mice in which a kidney cancer-related tumor suppressor gene, called Bhd (BHD in human), has been disrupted and the Bhd gene lost the function of tumor surpressing ability. Thus, the affected mice are predisposed to kidney cancer or renal carcinomas and related diseases. Attached are videos showing that the affected mice look like.

Bhd-Ksp-Cre kidney distal tubule/collecting duct-specific knockout mouse model:

In order to generate kidney-specific knockout mouse models, we must adopt a conditional way to disrupt the gene. Since the kidney is consisted of nephrons, each nephron is composed of five parts: glomerulus, proximal convoluted tubule, loop of henle, distal convoluted tubule, and collecting tubule. By adopting specific techniques, we can selectively knockout these parts respectively to see the outcomes of each part knocked out..

By using special technologies,Gateway Technology and Ksp-Cre-LoxP system, the first kidney-specific Bhd knockout mouse model was produced, called Bhd-flox/flox/Ksp-Cre mice. Since these mice lost the function of the Bhd gene, they developed enlarged kidneys characterized by polycystic kidneys, hyperplasia, and cystic renal cell carcinoma.  The affected Bhd-flox/flox/Ksp-Cre mice died of renal failure at approximate three weeks of age, having blood urea nitrogen levels over tenfold higher than normal littermate controls. The affected kidney developed a number of cysts which were filled with liquid. Some kidney generated cancerous cells, hyperplasia. Since the mice only survived for three weeks, we did not observed solid tumors due to their short lifespan. Then we developed another mouse model in which the Bhd gene was disrupted in the proximal convulted tubules instead of the distal tubules and collecting ducts. Please see the related video: Bhd-sglt2 mouse model.

Related Bhd Knockout mouse models