Nature 316, 461 - 463 (01 August 1985); doi:10.1038/316461a0

Peripheral neuropathies, hepatocellular carcinomas and islet cell adenomas in transgenic mice

Albee Messing^*§, Howard Y. Chen^†, Richard D. Palmiter^‡ & Ralph L. Brinster^†

^*Division of Neuropathology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
^†Laboratory of Reproductive Physiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
^‡Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
^§Present address: School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA

The ability to introduce foreign DNA into the genome of mice offers unique opportunities to produce new models of disease processes. Recent experiments have shown that integration and expression of simian virus 40 (SV40) T antigen genes¹ and the murine mammary tumour virus (MMTV)−myc genes² in transgenic mice can lead to the development of neoplasia in a remarkably tissue-specific manner. In the case of SV40-bearing mice, tumours consistently develop in the choroid plexus¹. In the accompanying paper, we show that the 72-base pair (bp) enhancer in the SV40 genome is instrumental in directing tumorigenesis to the choroid plexus³. However, when the enhancer is deleted from a construction also containing the metallothionein-human growth hormone fusion gene (SVe-MGH), an entirely new pattern of pathology results. The present report focuses on transgenic mice carrying this construct; they develop demyelinating peripheral neuropathies, hepatocellular carcinomas and islet cell adenomas.

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