Generation of a transgenic mouse in which Cre recombinase is expressed under control of the type II collagen promoter and doxycycline administration.

The ability to generate tissue-specific ablation of gene expression has been extremely useful in connective tissue biology, as it can potentially overcome the early embryonic lethal phenotype often associated with universal gene knockout. The value of tissue-specific knockouts can be enhanced by also allowing gene ablation to occur at specific times during development, growth or aging. In the present work a transgenic mouse has been generated in which expression of Cre recombinase is under control of both the type II collagen promoter to allow cartilage-specific expression and a doxycycline response element to permit temporal control of expression.

The characterization of versican and its message in human articular cartilage and intervertebral disc.

Splicing variation of the versican message and size heterogeneity of the versican core protein were analyzed in human articular cartilage and intervertebral disc. Splicing variation of the message was studied by PCR analysis to detect the presence or absence of exons 7 and 8, which encode large chondroitin sulfate attachment regions. At all ages in normal cartilage from the third trimester fetus to the mature adult, the presence of the versican isoform possessing exon 8 but not exon 7 (V1) could be readily detected.