A mouse model that is immunologically tolerant to reporter and modifier proteins

Commun Biol. 2020 May 29;3(1):273. doi: 10.1038/s42003-020-0979-0.

Abstract

Reporter proteins have become an indispensable tool in biomedical research. However, exogenous introduction of these reporters into mice poses a risk of rejection by the immune system. Here, we describe the generation, validation and application of a multiple reporter protein tolerant 'Tol' mouse model that constitutively expresses an assembly of shuffled reporter proteins from a single open reading frame. We demonstrate that expression of the Tol transgene results in the deletion of CD8+ T cells specific for a model epitope, and substantially improves engraftment of reporter-gene transduced T cells. The Tol strain provides a valuable mouse model for cell transfer and viral-mediated gene transfer studies, and serves as a methodological example for the generation of poly-tolerant mouse strains.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / immunology*
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Genes, Reporter / immunology*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Transgenes / immunology*