2.1 KB 5'-FLANKING REGION OF THE BRAIN-TYPE DYSTROPHIN GENE DIRECTS THE EXPRESSION OF LACZ IN THE CEREBRAL-CORTEX, BUT NOT IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a muscle-wasting disease accompanied by a variable, but often significant degree of mental retardation, possi bly due to the absence of dystrophin. However, the function of brain t ype dystrophin remains insufficiently clear. With this background, in order to study the cell-specific regulation of brain type dystrophin e xpression in mice, we generated transgenic mice carrying the 2.1 kb 5' -fragment of the mouse brain type dystrophin gene, fused to the coding region of the bacterial lacZ gene. Three transgenic mice lines showed lacZ expression in the cerebral cortex. However, lacZ expression was not detected in the CA region of the hippocampus. These results sugges t that the 2.1 kb 5'-fragment of the mouse brain type dystrophin requi red for its expression in the cerebral cortex, but not in the hippocam pus. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.