| First Author | Hayward MD | Year | 2007 |
| Journal | BMC Physiol | Volume | 7 |
| Pages | 13 | PubMed ID | 18070349 |
| Mgi Jnum | J:162149 | Mgi Id | MGI:4818254 |
| Doi | 10.1186/1472-6793-7-13 | Citation | Hayward MD, et al. (2007) An extensive phenotypic characterization of the hTNFalpha transgenic mice. BMC Physiol 7:13 |
| abstractText | BACKGROUND: Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) is implicated in a wide variety of pathological and physiological processes, including chronic inflammatory conditions, coronary artery disease, diabetes, obesity, and cachexia. Transgenic mice expressing human TNFalpha (hTNFalpha) have previously been described as a model for progressive rheumatoid arthritis. In this report, we describe extensive characterization of an hTNFalpha transgenic mouse line. RESULTS: In addition to arthritis, these hTNFalpha transgenic mice demonstrated major alterations in body composition, metabolic rate, leptin levels, response to a high-fat diet, bone mineral density and content, impaired fertility and male sexual function. Many phenotypes displayed an earlier onset and a higher degree of severity in males, pointing towards a significant degree of sexual dimorphism in response to deregulated expression of TNFalpha. CONCLUSION: These results highlight the potential usefulness of this transgenic model as a resource for studying the progressive effects of constitutively expressed low levels of circulating TNFalpha, a condition mimicking that observed in a number of human pathological conditions. |
