2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Establishment of a technique to generate highly brain region specific gene knockdown mouse and its application

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21200006
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research a proposed research project)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Neurophysiology and muscle physiology Laboratory animal science
Research Institution	The University of Tokyo
Principal Investigator	KIYAMA Yuji 東京大学, 医科学研究所, 助教 (90456195)
Research Collaborator	OGAWA Itone 東京大学, 医科学研究所, 技術職員
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2011
Keywords	扁桃体 / miRNA / NMDA受容体
Research Abstract	We tried to establish a technique to generate highly brain region specific gene knockdown mouse. For this purpose, we used two types of transgenic mouse which express their transgenes in different manners in their brain. Amygdala is involved in fear memory. Because both CamKII and GRP are coexpressed only in the amygdala, we tried to generate amygdala specific gene knockdown mice using these genes’ promoters. We have generated transgenic mice which express miRNA that downregulate the NMDA receptor only in the amygdala. We are analyzing the expression level of the target gene in the mice.