Fertile homozygous transgenic mice expressing a functional truncated Herpes simplex thymidine kinase ΔTK gene

Dividing cells expressing the Herpes simplex type 1 thymidine kinase (TK) can be killed upon ganciclovir treatment. Likewise, conditional cell knock-out can be: obtained in transgenic mice expressing a TK gene placed under the control of tissue-specific regulatory sequences. Such animals provide powerful experimental systems for assessing the functional role of specific cell populations through their time-controlled ablation. However, whatever the regulatory sequences used, a leaky toxic overexpression of TK in testis renders male TK-transgenic mice sterile and prevents the generation of homozygous TK-expressing animals. To solve this problem, we designed a truncated TK variant (Delta TK) not expressed in the testis. We generated transgenic mice expressing Delta TK under the control of lymphocyte-specific regulatory sequences derived from the CD4 gene. The Delta TK protein expressed in T-lymphocytes allowed the conditional ablation of activated T-cells in vitro and in vivo. Importantly, for one transgenic line we could generate fertile homozygous mice harboring a functional Delta TK transgene. Delta TK should thus dramatically facilitate the development of transgenic mice expressing a conditional suicide gene.