bcl-2-Immunoglobulin transgenic mice demonstrate extended B cell survival and follicular lymphoproliferation

Overexpression of Bcl-2 inhibits alveolar cell apoptosis during involution and accelerates c-myc-induced tumorigenesis of the mammary gland in transgenic mice

“…Based on experimental overexpression in transgenic mice, this has so far been demonstrated for lymphoid cells (McDonnell et al, 1989), for neurons of the central nervous system (Martinou et al, 1994), for hepatocytes (Lacronique et al, 1996) and, recently, for retinal photoreceptors (Chen et al, 1996). In this paper we describe transgenic mice which overexpress Bcl-2 under the control of the murine WAP promoter in their lactating mammmary glands.…”

“…In these animals, Bcl-2 has been shown to suppress c-Myc-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, Bcl-2 prolonged the lifespan of pre-B cells leading to the expansion of a polyclonal B cell pool in the spleens of Ig-bcl-2 transgenic mice (McDonnell et al, 1989). In the WAP-bcl-2 transgenic mice this may correspond to the delayed involution-associated apoptosis of alveolar cells.…”

The impact of bcl-2 expression and bax deficiency on prostate homeostasis in vivo

“…The absence of prostatic hyperplasia in the probasin-bcl2 mice is a clearly di erent consequence of enforced bcl-2 expression in other cells types in transgenic models. For example enforced expression of bcl-2 in B lymphocytes in bcl-2-immunoglobulin transgenic mice results initially in a 3 ± 4-fold expansion in the number of B lymphocytes and lymphoid hyperplasia (McDonnell et al, 1989). The number of neurons in the central nervous systems of mice was signi®cantly increased when bcl-2 expression was enforced using the neuronspeci®c enolase promoter (Martinou et al, 1994).…”

An Eμ-BCL-2 transgene facilitates leukaemogenesis by ionizing radiation

“…Mice transgenic for the human BCL-2 gene (under the IG gene enhancer, Em-BCL-2 mice) were provided by Dr S Korsmeyer (McDonnell et al, 1989) and crossed in-house with CBA mice. Transgenic status was determined routinely by PCR of tail DNA using the following primer set: sense 5'-GGATGCCTTTGTGGAACTGTACG-3' anti-sense 5'-TTG-GGGCAGGCATGTTGACT-3'.…”

“…Em-BCL-2 transgenic mice constitutively express human BCL-2 protein at high levels in the B cell lineage (McDonnell et al, 1989). These animals may spontaneously develop B lineage malignancies at a relatively modest rate (5 ± 15%) and with a protracted latency (12 ± 18 months) (McDonnell and Korsmeyer, 1991;Strasser et al, 1993) although a cross between Em-BCL-2 and Em-MYC transgenic mice results in a high rate of leukaemias with a brief latency (Strasser et al, 1990), indicating that single oncogenes can have highly penetrant e ects in the context of expression of an anti-apoptotic gene.…”