Zb. Cui et Zy. Zhu, HORMONAL REPLACEMENT THERAPY IN FISH - HUMAN GROWTH-HORMONE GENE-FUNCTION IN HYPOPHYSECTOMIZED CARP, Fish physiology and biochemistry, 12(2), 1993, pp. 161-169
Transgenic common carp, Cyprinus carpio, produced by the microinjectio
n of fertilized eggs with a linearized chimeric plasmid pMThGH, a huma
n growth hormone (hGH) gene with a mouse metallothionein-I (MT) gene p
romoter in pBR322, were used to produce F1 and F2 transgenics. Followi
ng hypophysectomy of the transgenic F2 common carp, non-transgenic com
mon carp and non-transgenic crucian carp, growth was monitored for up
to 110 days. In addition, recombinant hGH was injected subcutaenously
into a group of the non-transgenic crucian carp. Growth rate analyses
indicated that (1) hypophysectomy of non-transgenic common carp and cr
ucian carp results in the cessation of growth, (2) hGH administration
can stimulate the growth of hypophysectomized crucian carp and (3) hyp
ophysectomized hGH-transgenic common carp continue to grow in the abse
nce of their own growth hormone, suggesting that the hGH-transgene is
being expressed in tissues other than the pituitary.