K. Duff et al., Characterization of pathology in transgenic mice over-expressing human genomic and cDNA tau transgenes, NEUROBIOL D, 7(2), 2000, pp. 87-98
To examine the normal cellular function of tau and its role in pathogenesis
, we have created transgenic mice that overexpress a tau transgene derived
from a human PAC that contains the coding sequence, intronic regions, and r
egulatory regions of the human gene. All six isoforms of human tau are repr
esented in the transgenic mouse brain at the mRNA and protein level and the
human tau is distributed in neurites and at synapses, but is absent from c
ell bodies. A comparison between the genomic tau mice and mice that overexp
ress a tau cDNA transgene shows that overall, the distribution of tau is si
milar in the two lines, but human tau is located in the somatodendritic com
partment of many neurons in the cDNA mice. Tau-immunoreactive axonal swelli
ngs were found in the spinal cords of the cDNA mice, which correlated with
a hind-limb abnormality, whereas neuropathology was essentially normal in t
he genomic mice up to 8 months of age. (C) 2000 Academic Press.