Strain Detail: VE-cadherin-Cre mice

VE-cadherin-Cre mice specifically express Cre by vascular endothelial-cadherin (Cdh5) promoter in vascular endothelial cells. This strain is used for conditional transgenic mouse system (Cre/loxP system). It's possible to produce mice expressing LacZ or GFP in the control of VE-cadherin promoter by mating between VE-cadherin-Cre mouse and LacZ reporter mouse or GFP reporter mouse carrying loxP sites. This strain is used for elucidation of role of VE-cadherin in the neovascularization of the myocardial infarction model (1). Therefore, this strain is available for the research of cardiovascular disease widely. Incidentally, cadherin is an calcium ion dependent intercellular adhesion molecule and forms cadherin familiy constructed of tissue-specific expressed molecules such as E-cadherin in the epithelium or N-cadherin in the brain. VE-cadherin specifically expresses in the vascular endothelial cell.

1. Kogata N, Arai Y, Pearson JT, Hashimoto K, Hidaka K, Koyama T, Somekawa S, Nakaoka Y, Ogawa M, Adams RH, Okada M, Mochizuki N. Cardiac ischemia activates vascular endothelial cadherin promoter in both preexisting vascular cells and bone marrow cells involved in neovascularization.Circ Res. 2006 Apr 14;98(7):897-904.[PMID: 16543497]
2. Gory S, Vernet M, Laurent M, Dejana E, Dalmon J, Huber P. Thevascular endothelial-cadherinpromoter directs endothelial-specific expression in transgenic mice.Blood. 1999 Jan 1;93(1):184-92.[PMID: 9864160]