The cost of publication in Journal of Biomedical Science is borne by the National Science Council, Taiwan.
Research
Spontaneous inflammatory pain model from a mouse line with N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea mutagenesis
1 Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 11529, Taiwan, Republic of China
2 Institute of Zoology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
3 Graduate Institute of Life Science, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
4 Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and Graduate Institute of Immunology, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, Republic of China
5 Department of Neurology, National Taiwan University Hospital and Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, Republic of China
Journal of Biomedical Science 2012, 19:55 doi:10.1186/1423-0127-19-55
Published: 30 May 2012Abstract
Background
N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea mutagenesis was used to induce a point mutation in C57BL/6 J mice. Pain-related phenotype screening was performed in 915 G3 mice. We report the detection of a heritable recessive mutant in meiotic recombinant N1F1 mice that caused an abnormal pain sensitivity phenotype with spontaneous skin inflammation in the paws and ears.
Methods
We investigated abnormal sensory processing, neuronal peptides, and behavioral responses after the induction of autoinflammatory disease. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers and polymerase chain reaction product sequencing were used to identify the mutation site.
Results
All affected mice developed paw inflammation at 4–8 weeks. Histological examinations revealed hyperplasia of the epidermis in the inflamed paws and increased macrophage expression in the spleen and paw tissues. Mechanical and thermal nociceptive response thresholds were reduced in the affected mice. Locomotor activity was decreased in affected mice with inflamed hindpaws, and this reduction was attributable to the avoidance of contact of the affected paw with the floor. Motor strength and daily activity in the home cage in the affected mice did not show any significant changes. Although Fos immunoreactivity was normal in the dorsal horn of affected mice, calcitonin gene-related peptide immunoreactivity significantly increased in the deep layer of the dorsal horn. The number of microglia increased in the spinal cord, hippocampus, and cerebral cortex in affected mice, and the proliferation of microglia was maintained for a couple of months. Two hundred eighty-five SNP markers were used to reveal the affected gene locus, which was found on the distal part of chromosome 18. A point mutation was detected at A to G in exon 8 of the pstpip2 gene, resulting in a conserved tyrosine residue at amino acid 180 replaced by cysteine (Y180 C).
Conclusions
The data provide definitive evidence that a mutation in pstpip2 causes autoinflammatory disease in an N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea mutagenesis mouse model. Thus, our pstpip2 mutant mice provide a new model for investigating the potential mechanisms of inflammatory pain.
