Dilated cardiomyopathy resulting from high-level myocardial expression of Cre-recombinase

A Buerger, O Rozhitskaya, MC Sherwood… - Journal of cardiac …, 2006 - Elsevier
BACKGROUND: Conditional gene inactivation in mice using the bacteriophage P1 Cre-loxP
recombination system requires transgenic expression of Cre-recombinase driven by a tissue-
specific or inducible promoter. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using the cardiac α-myosin-
heavy-chain promoter, the most commonly used myocardial-specific transgenic promoter,
we created transgenic mice expressing Cre-recombinase in the heart. Seven transgenic
lines developed dilated cardiomyopathy and premature death from congestive heart failure …