We have previously produced transgenic (TG) mice expressing the human lactoferrin (hLF), interleukin-10 (hIL-10), and thrombopoietin (hTPO) proteins in the milk. In this study, we examined whether simple crossbreeding between two kids of a single transgenic mouse can produce double transgenics co-expressing two human proteins.. The hLF male, and the hIL-10 male were crossbred with the hIL-10 and hTPO females, and the hTPO female, respectively. PCR analysis for genotyping showed 32%, 23% and 24% double transgenic rates for hLF/hIL-10, hLF/hTPO, and hIL-10/hTPO transgenes, respectively. We analyzed the expression levels of the human proteins from double transgenic mice and compared those with their single transgenic siblings. All double transgenic co-expressed two human proteins at comparable levels to singles', unless hTPO was not co-expressed: for hLF, 1.1 mg/ml in hLF/hIL-10, whereas 0.5 mg/ml in hLF/hTPO; for hIL-10, 4.1 mg/ml in hIL-10/hLF, whereas 1.4 mg/ml in hIL-10/hTPO. Ihe downregulation of hTPO to half level of singles' was observed in double transgenic mice. The possible reason why hTPO co-expressed might lead to down-regulation of another human protein was discussed. These results suggested that double transgenic generated by crossbreeding between two singles' could be useful system for bioreactor.

형질전환 동물의 유선에서 특이적으로 인간 TPO가 발현되도록 고안된 pBT-L 외래유전자가 삽입되어 한 계통으로 확립된 형질전환 생쥐에서 이 유전자가 장기 세대까지 안정적으로 전이되고, 또한 발현 수준도 지속적으로 유지되는지를 조사 하였다 이를 위해 제 5세대의 수컷 pBT-L 형질전환 생쥐를 실험에 공시하였고, 제 10세대까지의 전이율과 인간 TPO의 발현수준을 분석하였다. 제 8세대 생쥐의 계대 번식에 의한 자손 중 51.3±18.98%가 형질전환 생쥐로 판명되었다. 또한 제9세대에서 외래 유전자의 전이율은 43.8±18.98%이었고, 제 10세대에서는 71.4±26.98%의 전이율을 나타내었다. 이러한 결과로 pBT-L 형질전환 생쥐는 그 외래유전자의 유전적 손상이 없이 장기 세대까지 안정적으로 전이되는 것으로 판단된다. 제 9세대외 10세대의 3마리의 암컷 형질전환 생쥐로 부터 유즙내 인간 TPO의 발현 수준을 분석하였을때, 그 농도는 모두 평균 1.1 mg/ml의 수준에서 측정되었다. 이러한 수준은 제 2세대의 것과 유사한 결과로 pBT-L 형질전환 생쥐에서 인간 TPO 유전자의 발현은 최소한 10세대까지 지속적으로 유지된다는 것을 알 수 있었고, 더 긴 장기 세대까지도 발현 수준이 유지될 것으로 추정된다. 이러한 연구결과는 계통으로 확립된 형질전환동물에 부여된 새로운 유전형질은 장기 세대까지 유전될 수 있음을 보여주는 것이다.

Research has been in progress for more than a decade to production of useful proteins by genetic modification in cattle. However, the levels of protein production in transgenic cattle have been reported very low. To enhance protein production in transgenic animal, we tried homologous recombination to donor cells for production of transgenic clone cattle through nuclear transfer procedure. Thus, we constructed the two targeting vectors of human thrombopoietin (TPO) at bovine -casein locus using homologous recombination with 13.6 kb and 9.6 kb homology. In two targeting vectors, positive selection was through the neomycin resistance gene and negative selection was by the diphtheria toxin (DT). Gene targeting was attempted in bovine embryonic fibroblasts (bEF) and bovine ear skin fibroblasts (bESF). To determine the most appropriate concentration of neomycin for bEF and bESF, G4l8 resistance was confirmed by culturing the cells in various concentrations of the drug and both of the cells were optimally selected at of neomycin. The transfected bEF and bESF by the targeting vectors were colonized efficiently at the ratio of DNA to transfection reagent such as :2 and :. Comparing number of healthy clones from passage 4 to passage 8, bESF (17%) persist in culture for much longer than bEF (6%). The two gene-targeted bESF clones of 30 random-integrated clones with 9.6 kb homology length were confirmed, however, nothing was out of 72 random integration clones with 13.6 kb homology length, The DT also worked more efficiently in clones transfected with the vector of 9.6 kb homology length. Our data suggests that the choice of donor cell for long culture period should be considered to obtain targeted cell clone, and the gene-targeting frequency and the DT working efficiency are dependent on the length of target homology.