There is growing concern over confounding artifacts associated with β-cell–specific Cre-recombinase transgenic models, raising questions about their general usefulness in research. The inducible β-cell–specific transgenic (MIP-CreERT1Lphi) mouse was designed to circumvent many of these issues, and we investigated whether this tool effectively addressed concerns of ectopic expression and disruption of glucose metabolism. Recombinase activity was absent from the central nervous system using a reporter line and high-resolution microscopy. Despite increased pancreatic insulin content, MIP-CreERT mice on a chow diet exhibited normal ambient glycemia, glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, and appropriate insulin secretion in response to glucose in vivo and in vitro. However, MIP-CreERT mice on different genetic backgrounds were protected from high-fat/ streptozotocin (STZ)-induced hyperglycemia that was accompanied by increased insulin content and islet density. Ectopic human growth hormone (hGH) was highly expressed in MIP-CreERT islets independent of tamoxifen administration. Circulating insulin levels remained similar to wild-type controls, whereas STZ-associated increases in α-cell number and serum glucagon were significantly blunted in MIP-CreERT1Lphi mice, possibly due to paracrine effects of hGH-induced serotonin expression. These studies reveal important new insight into the strengths and limitations of the MIP-CreERT mouse line for β-cell research.

SummaryImmunodeficient mice bearing targeted mutations in the IL2rg gene and engrafted with human immune systems are effective tools for the study of human haematopoiesis, immunity, infectious disease and transplantation biology. The most robust human immune model is generated by implantation of human fetal thymic and liver tissues in irradiated recipients followed by intravenous injection of autologous fetal liver haematopoietic stem cells [often referred to as the BLT (bone marrow, liver, thymus) model]. To evaluate the non-obese diabetic (NOD)-scid IL2rγ null (NSG)-BLT model, we have assessed various engraftment parameters and how these parameters influence the longevity of NSG-BLT mice. We observed that irradiation and subrenal capsule implantation of thymus/liver fragments was optimal for generating human immune systems. However, after 4 months, a high number of NSG-BLT mice develop a fatal graft-versus-host disease (GVHD)-like syndrome, which correlates with the activation of human T cells and increased levels of human immunoglobulin (Ig). Onset of GVHD was not delayed in NSG mice lacking murine major histocompatibility complex (MHC) classes I or II and was not associated with a loss of human regulatory T cells or absence of intrathymic cells of mouse origin (mouse CD45 + ). Our findings demonstrate that NSG-BLT mice develop robust human immune systems, but that the experimental window for these mice may be limited by the development of GVHD-like pathological changes.

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) has diverse biological functions including its nuclear translocation in response to oxidative stress. We show that GAPDH physically associates with APE1, an essential enzyme involved in the repair of abasic sites in damaged DNA, as well as in the redox regulation of several transcription factors. This interaction allows GAPDH to convert the oxidized species of APE1 to the reduced form, thereby reactivating its endonuclease activity to cleave abasic sites. The GAPDH variants C152G and C156G retain the ability to interact with but are unable to reactivate APE1, implicating these cysteines in catalyzing the reduction of APE1. Interestingly, GAPDH-small interfering RNA knockdown sensitized the cells to methyl methane sulfonate and bleomycin, which generate lesions that are repaired by APE1, but showed normal sensitivity to 254-nm UV. Moreover, the GAPDH knockdown cells exhibited an increased level of spontaneous abasic sites in the genomic DNA as a result of diminished APE1 endonuclease activity. Thus, the nuclear translocation of GAPDH during oxidative stress constitutes a protective mechanism to safeguard the genome by preventing structural inactivation of APE1.The evolutionary conserved enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) 3 exists as a tetramer that catalyzes a critical reaction in the second stage of the glycolytic pathway (1). It uses the oxidized form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD ϩ ) and converts glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate to 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate with the concomitant release of NADH in an oxido-reduction reaction (1). GAPDH is also a key redox-sensitive protein that possesses an active site cysteine sulfhydryl that is susceptible to oxidation (2). Under oxidative stress, GAPDH rapidly undergoes disulfide bond formation leading to reduction in its enzymatic activity (2, 3). GAPDH has the propensity to interact with several proteins that are vulnerable to aggregation and are associated with neurodegenerative disorders such as in the case of the pro-oxidant amyloid ␤ peptide involved in Alzheimer disease (4). Recent studies have documented that GAPDH is also involved in several other nuclear processes that include histone H2B gene expression, nuclear RNA export, apoptosis, and cellular response to DNA damage (5-8).Several lines of evidence support a role for GAPDH in DNA damage and repair (5, 9). For example, GAPDH can translocate from the cytoplasm to the nucleus when cells are challenged with the potent chemical oxidant and DNA-damaging agent H 2 O 2 , although it is not clear what is the function executed by GAPDH under this stress condition (10). However, a more recent study documented that nitric oxide can also induce nuclear localization of GAPDH where it is acetylated by the acetyltransferase p300/CBP via direct protein interaction, which in turn causes stimulation of the catalytic activity of p300/CBP, resulting in the activation of downstream targets such as p53 (11). Other studies have shown that GAPDH is associated w...

Many of the pathogens that cause human infectious diseases do not infect rodents or other mammalian species. Small animal models that allow studies of the pathogenesis of these agents and evaluation of drug efficacy are critical for identifying ways to prevent and treat human infectious diseases. Immunodeficient mice engrafted with functional human cells and tissues, termed “humanized” mice, represent a critical pre-clinical bridge for in vivo studies of human pathogens. Recent advances in the development of humanized mice have allowed in vivo studies of multiple human infectious agents providing novel insights into their pathogenesis that is otherwise not possible.