Mice expressing GFP and CreER in osteochondro progenitor cells in the periosteum

Abstract

We generated Prx1CreER-GFP transgenic mice that express tamoxifen-inducible Cre recombinase and GFP under the control of a 2.4 kb Prx1 promoter. The transgene is expressed in osteochondro progenitor cells in the developing limb buds and in a subpopulation of periosteal cells that is closely associated with the cortical bone. GFP-expressing cells isolated from the diaphyses of long bones by cell sorting express multiple markers of periosteal cells, including Prx-1, Fgf18, Tenascin-W, Periostin, and Thrombospondin 2. In addition, these cells undergo chondrogenic and osteogenic differentiation in culture upon induction. Cell fate analysis using the Rosa26 LacZ reporter indicated that transgene-expressing cells give rise to some of the chondrocytes and osteoblasts in the fracture callus. Collectively, these observations strongly suggest that the transgene-expressing cells are osteochondro progenitor cells in the periosteum. The established Prx1CreER-GFP mice would offer novel approaches for analyzing the functions of periosteal cells in vitro and in vivo.

Twist1 mediates repression of chondrogenesis by β-catenin to promote cranial bone progenitor specification

“…3E) (Hill et al, 2005). The En1Cre; -catenin ex3/+ mutants died by E12.5, so we used an inducible Prx1CreER driver (Kawanami et al, 2009) (Prx1 is also known as Prrx1 -Mouse Genome Informatics). In the head, the Prx1Cre transgene labelled cranial mesenchyme at E11 (Hill et al, 2005), and induction of Prx1CreER at E9.5 and E10.5 resulted in Prx1CreER lineage cells contributing to the frontal, parietal and interparietal bones by E16.5 (supplementary material Fig.…”

“…Conditional functional studies were conducted using En1Cre mice (Kimmel et al, 2000), Twist2Cre mice and Prx1CreERGFP mice (Kawanami et al, 2009). The conventional null, conditional loss-and gain-of-function floxed alleles for -catenin (Ctnnb1) [-catenin…”

Genetic analysis of Runx2 function during intramembranous ossification

“…Runx2 is expressed in Prx1-GFP + cells, but not nestin-GFP + cells, in the calvaria Next, we assessed Runx2 expression in the calvaria of transgenic mice expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) under control of the 2.4-kb Prx1 promoter (Prx1-GFP + ) (Kawanami et al, 2009) or the 5.8-kb promoter and 1.8-kb second intron of the Nes gene (nestin-GFP + ) (Mignone et al, 2004;Ono et al, 2014). Wholemount and histological analyses revealed the presence of Prx1-GFP + cells in the calvarial suture region ( Fig.…”

The Prrx1 homeodomain transcription factor plays a central role in pancreatic regeneration and carcinogenesis

“…To understand Prrx1's role in vivo, we characterized pancreatic cell populations from adult (2-mo-old) Prrx1creER T2 -IRES-GFP mice (Kawanami et al 2009). We were able to identify a distinct DBA lectin + (ductal)/GFP + population (Fig.…”