Inflammatory eye disease is a major cause of decreased vision and blindness worldwide. Relatively few animal models of uveitis exist, which has limited understanding of disease pathogenesis. No biologically relevant system for screening of drugs active against uveitis is available. The few existing mouse models of uveitis do not take advantage of the burgeoning set of resources of modem mouse genetics. We propose creating a new model for uveitic disease by generating sets of transgenic mice engineered to express specific immunogenic proteins (derived from ocular pathogens) in specific subsets of ocular tissue. We predict that such transgenic mice will develop ocular inflammatory disease when challenged with those pathogens; that is, a synthetic uveitis model can be generated by molecular mimicry. This research will optimize the yeast Gal4-UAS transactivating system for use in mammalian cells and in transgenic mice, and add rheostat function with the mammalian-adapted lac-repressor system; create transgenic mice expressing the Gal4 transcriptional activator under the control of ocular tissue-specific promoters, and transgenic mice expressing specific proteins under the control of the UAS upstream recognition sequence; and analyze offspring of these mouse strains for spontaneous inflammation as well as inflammation following immunization with pathogen and pathogen protein. ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Small Research Grants (R03)
Project #
5R03EY016216-03
Application #
7171791
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZEY1-VSN (01))
Program Officer
Shen, Grace L
Project Start
2004-12-01
Project End
2007-11-30
Budget Start
2006-12-01
Budget End
2007-11-30
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2007
Total Cost
$148,568
Indirect Cost
Name
Washington University
Department
Ophthalmology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
068552207
City
Saint Louis
State
MO
Country
United States
Zip Code
63130