Figure 2. Liver-specific ablation of Ggcx gene.

A, The albumin promoter is active only in hepatocytes. Alb-Cre or wild type (WT) mice were mated with ROSA26-LacZ mice. Livers were obtained postnatally from mice and stained with X-gal. β-galactosidase activity was detected in the hepatocytes of the mouse born from mating of Alb-Cre and ROSA26-LacZ mice (right panel). Liver of the mouse born from wild type was shown as a negative control (left panel). Representative figures are shown for each group. B, Genotyping using genomic tail DNA. Expected bands from Cre recombinase, loxP sequence (floxed allele), and wild type allele are shown. In mouse #2, #4 and #5, both alleles were replaced with loxP containing recombinant alleles, with at least one copy of Cre recombinase. A representative result is shown. C, Liver-specific ablation of Ggcx gene was confirmed with PCR analysis. DNA samples derived from liver, spleen, kidney and heart of 6-month week old Ggcx^{Δliver/Δliver} mice (4 male mice and 4 female mice) and control Ggcx^+/+ mice (4 male mice and 4 female mice) were used as templates. D, Activity of Ggcx in the liver-specific Ggcx-deficient mice. Microsome was prepared from the livers of 6-week old Ggcx^{Δliver/Δliver} mice and control Ggcx^+/+ mice of both sexes. The activity of Ggcx was measured by ¹⁴CO₂ incorporated into exogenous substrate in the presence of reduced vitamin K (222 µM). Bars represent the mean value ± SEM (n = 4). Differences between the mean values were analyzed using the unpaired Student's t-test. **P<0.01.