Translational Medicine
Open Access

Powerful preclinical mouse model to study live mucin and mucous cell differentiation

14^th Annual Conference on Translational Medicine and Oncologists Meet

November 28-30, 2016 San Francisco, USA

Jean-Luc Desseyn

LIRIC UMR 995, France
Universite Lille-II, France

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Transl Med

Abstract :

Mucous cells are specialized cells that produce gelling mucins responsible for the mucus gel formation. Modification of mucous cell density and gelling mucin production are established hallmarks of many mucosal diseases including solid tumors (breast cancer, tumors from the digestive, respiratory and reproductive tract), otitis, rhinosinusitis, dry eye, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary fibrosis and asthma. A genetically engineered Muc5b-GFP tagged reporter mouse line at the peptide level was obtained by homologous recombination. Embryonic lung explants allowed to show that interleukine (IL) 13 stimulates Muc5b production. Live Muc5b was easily monitored by probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (pCLE) in the nasal cavity, trachea, eye conjunctiva and vagina. As proof of concept that the mouse strain was a valuable preclinical model, we first showed that Muc5b production greatly varied during estrous cycle. We next demonstrated that the decrease in conjunctival goblet cell density monitored by pCLE in living mice with chemically-induced dry eye was reversed by topical application of IL13. The transgenic mouse is unique and suitable for preclinical drug development and suited for pharmacological studies to study the effect of compounds on mucosal homeostasis in living animals.

Biography :

Email: jean-luc.desseyn@inserm.fr