Characterization of transgene expression and Cre recombinase activity in a panel of Thy-1 promoter-Cre transgenic mice

The regulatory elements of the murine Thy1.2 gene were used to drive Cre recombinase expression in the nervous system (NS) of transgenic mice. Eleven Thy1-Cre lines exhibited transgene expression in several regions of the central and peripheral nervous systems, including the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, spinal cord, retina, and dorsal root ganglion. Thy1-Cre expression also resulted in region-specific activation of Cre reporter transgenes. Although Thy-1 expression is normally initiated in postmitotic neurons in the perinatal period, we show that the Thy-1.2 expression cassette drives Cre expression in immature proliferative zones in the NS as early as embryonic day 11 and in non-neural tissue. The Thy1.2 transgene cassette, therefore, does not impart transgene expression that is restricted to the NS or to postmitotic neurons within the NS. This panel of Thy1-Cre transgenic mice, however, will be useful reagents for the ablation of genes whose transcripts are spatially or temporally restricted in the developing NS. (C) 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.