Strain Detail: Col11a2-Smad6 mice

Col11a2-Smad6 mice are transgenic mice specifically expressing Smad6 in chondrocytes and become dwarfism with osteopenia. The transgene specifically regulated by using Col11a2 (Type XI collagen alpha 2 chain gene) promoter/enhancer in chondrocytes. It's showed that this srain is delayed hypertrophy of chondrocytes though chondrocyte growth is almost normal in the endochondral ossification. It's concidered that this event is related to disorder of bone growth and formation.

This strain is useful for elucidation of in vivo roles of Smad6 about signal transduction of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) which is important of osteogenesis or chondrogenesis, and expects to contribute to basic research for the therapy of motor system diseases in orthopedics. Incidentally, Smad is a protein to transduce intracellular signal of growth differentiation factor in the TGF-β super family, and it's classified receptor-regulated Smad, common Smad, antagonistic Smad. Smad6 is an antagonistic Smad.

1. Horiki M, Imamura T, Okamoto M, Hayashi M, Murai J, Myoui A, Ochi T, Miyazono K, Yoshikawa H, Tsumaki N. (2004) Smad6/Smurf1 overexpression in cartilage delays chondrocyte hypertrophy and causes dwarfism with osteopenia. J Cell Biol. 165(3):433-45. [PMID: 15123739]