| First Author | O'Keefe TL | Year | 1998 |
| Journal | Immunogenetics | Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 2 | Pages | 125-32 |
| PubMed ID | 9634476 | Mgi Jnum | J:48688 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:1274870 | Doi | 10.1007/s002510050412 |
| Citation | O'Keefe TL, et al. (1998) Mice carrying a CD20 gene disruption. Immunogenetics 48(2):125-32 |
| abstractText | CD20 is a hallmark antigen of B lymphocytes. Its expression is restricted to precursor and mature B cells but it is not expressed on plasma cells. The protein is a membrane-embedded phosphoprotein that appears likely to transverse the membrane four times. Its function is unknown although CD20 has been variously proposed to play a role in B-cell activation, proliferation, and calcium transport. A unique homologue of human CD20 has been described in mouse, which also shows a B-cell-specific pattern of expression. Here we describe the generating of mice carrying a CD20 gene disruption. So far, we have failed to detect any major effect of the gene disruption on the differentiation and function of B lymphocytes as judged by the expression of surface markers, antigen receptor signaling, proliferative responses, or calcium uptake. We did note, however, that the mice homozygous for the gene disruption [generated by intercrossing (129 X C57BL/6)F-1 CD20(+/-) heterozygotes] showed a substantial depletion of the sub-population of peritoneal B cells that lack expression of the B220 (RA3-6B2) isoform of CD45. The loss of the IgM(+) 6B2(-) peritoneal B cells is not, however, attributable to the CD20 gene disruption itself. Rather, it segregates with a polymorphic difference between the 129 and C57BL/6 strains that is linked to the CD20 locus which, intriguingly, is itself close to the CD5 gene. This demonstrates that caution must be exercised when comparing the phenotypes of F-2 litter-mates generated from crosses between 129 embryonic stem-cell- derived chimeras and mice of other strains. |
