Specific Cre/Lox Recombination in the Mouse Proximal Tubule

The present work reports for the first time the construction of a transgenic mouse strain with specific expression of Cre recombinase in the kidney proximal tubule. A Cre/loxP strategy was developed using sglt2 promoter to drive Cre recombinase expression in transgenic mice. The mouse sglt2 5' region consisting of the first exon, the first intron, and part of the second exon was cloned upstream of a nucleotide sequence encoding the Cre recombinase. Transgenic mice were generated by pronuclear injection, and tissue specificity of Cre expression was analyzed using reverse transcription-PCR. The iL1-sglt2-Cre mouse line scored positive for kidney transcription of Cre but not for the other tissues analyzed. Within the kidney, Cre transcripts were demonstrated to be restricted to the proximal tubule only. iL1-sglt2-Cre mice were bred with ROSA26-LacZ reporter mice that contained a loxP-flanked stop sequence upstream of the LacZ gene. X-gal staining and immunohistochemistry using specific antibodies (anti-megalin, anti-Tamm-Horsfall, anti-NaCl co-transporter, and anti-aquaporin 2) revealed that sglt2 drives Cre functional expression specifically in proximal tubules. The iL1-sglt2-Cre mouse therefore represents a powerful tool for Cre-LoxP-mediated conditional expression in the renal proximal tubule.