Figure 1.
A: Schematic diagram of the construct made to generate transgenic mice. The human GFAP (hGFAP) promoter shown in green (a kind gift from Dr Michael Brenner, University of Alabama, Birmingham) was used to direct overexpression of the rat Nuc1 mutant protein (blue) specifically in astrocytes. The transcription termination signal is a 3’ fragment of mouse protamine-1 (MP-1) gene containing the functional polyadenylation signal (pink). B: Western blot of 6 and 10 week old wild type and transgenic mouse retina with targeted overexpression of mutant (Nuc1) βA3/A1-crystallin in astrocytes, probed with antibody specific for βA3/A1-crystallin. The upper band is βA3-crystallin and the lower is βA1-crystallin. There is a significant increase in the expression of mutant βA3/A1-crystallin in the transgenic mice at both ages tested.