ABSTRACT
Objective To establish and identify transgenic mice model that specifically express delta drosophila homolog-like 1 (DLK1) in liver for the functional study of DLK1 on liver differentiation,hepatopathy,and hepatocellular carcinoma.Methods The coding sequence of DLK1 cDNA was inserted downstream of mouse albumin gene enhancer/promoter to construct a liver-specific DLK1 expression recombinant vector.The DNA fragment of transgene digested from the recombinant vector by Pine I was transfected to Hepl-6 cells to verify the expression of DLK1 in vitro.Then the transgene fragment was microinjeeted into fertilized eggs of C57×CBA F1 mice and 20 transgenic founder mice were generated.The F1 mice of DLK1 transgenie founder mice were used to identify the expression of the transgene in liver and other tissues.Results RT-PCR and cellular immunofluorescence showed DLK1 expression when the transgene fragment was transfeeted into Hep1-6.For transgenic mice,RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry showed that DLK1 was specifically expressed in adult F1 mice liver.Conclusion Successfully established the liver-specific DLK1 expression transgenic mice model.