Endothelial-specific cre mouse models: is your cre credibile?

S Payne, S De Val, A Neal - Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and …, 2018 - Am Heart Assoc
S Payne, S De Val, A Neal
Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology, 2018Am Heart Assoc
The field of vascular biology has gained enormous insight from the use of Cre and inducible
Cre mouse models to temporally and spatially manipulate gene expression within the
endothelium. Models are available to constitutively or inducibly modulate gene expression
in all or a specified subset of endothelial cells. However, caution should be applied to both
the selection of allele and the analysis of resultant phenotype: many similarly named Cre
models have divergent activity patterns while ectopic or inconsistent Cre or inducible Cre …
The field of vascular biology has gained enormous insight from the use of Cre and inducible Cre mouse models to temporally and spatially manipulate gene expression within the endothelium. Models are available to constitutively or inducibly modulate gene expression in all or a specified subset of endothelial cells. However, caution should be applied to both the selection of allele and the analysis of resultant phenotype: many similarly named Cre models have divergent activity patterns while ectopic or inconsistent Cre or inducible Cre expression can dramatically affect results. In an effort to disambiguate previous data and to provide a resource to aid appropriate experimental design, here we summarize what is known about Cre recombinase activity in the most widely used endothelial-specific Cre and Cre/ERT2 mouse models.
Am Heart Assoc