Title
A Novel Animal Model for Pseudoxanthoma Elasticum: The KK/HlJ Mouse.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-1-2012
JAX Source
Am J Pathol 2012; 181:1190-96.
PMID
22846719
Volume
181
Issue
4
First Page
1190
Last Page
1196
ISSN
1525-2191
Abstract
Pseudoxanthoma elasticum is a multisystem ectopic mineralization disorder caused by mutations in the ABCC6 gene. A mouse model with targeted ablation of the corresponding gene (Abcc6(tm1JfK)) develops ectopic mineralization on the dermal sheath of vibrissae as biomarker of the progressive mineralization disorder. Survey of 31 mouse strains in a longitudinal aging study has identified three mouse strains with similar ectopic mineralization of the vibrissae, particularly the KK/HlJ strain. We report here that this mouse strain depicts, in addition to ectopic mineralization of the dermal sheath of vibrissae, mineral deposits in a number of internal organs. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis and topographic mapping found the presence of calcium and phosphate as the principal ions in the mineral deposits, similar to that in Abcc6(tm1JfK) mice, suggesting the presence of calcium hydroxyapatite. The mineralization was associated with a splice junction mutation at the 3' end of exon 14 of the Abcc6 gene, resulting in a 5-bp deletion from the coding region and causing frame-shift of translation. As a consequence, essentially no Abcc6 protein was detected in the liver of the KK/HlJ mice, similar to that in Abcc6(tm1JfK) mice. Collectively, our studies found that the KK/HlJ mouse strain is characterized by ectopic mineralization due to a mutation in the Abcc6 gene and therefore provides a novel model system to study pseudoxanthoma elasticum.
Recommended Citation
Li Q,
Berndt A,
Guo H,
Sundberg J,
Uitto J.
A Novel Animal Model for Pseudoxanthoma Elasticum: The KK/HlJ Mouse. Am J Pathol 2012; 181:1190-96.