The production of a diabetic mouse using constructs encoding porcine insulin promoter-driven mutant human hepatocyte nuclear factor-1alpha.

A diabetic mouse model was produced using a mutant human hepatocyte nuclear factor-1alpha gene (HNF1alphaP291fsinsC) regulated by the porcine insulin promoter. The functionality of two different constructs containing HNF1alphaP291fsinsC, termed PD1 and PD2 (cytomegalovirus enhancer minus and plus), were examined in transgenic mice. The blood glucose levels and body weights of the PD1 transgenic mice did not differ from their non-transgenic littermates over the period from 3 to 8 weeks of age. Conversely, the PD2 transgenic mice exhibited hyperglycemia and decreased body weight. Western blot analysis demonstrated that mutant HNF-1alpha protein (HNF1alphaP291), derived from the PD2 transgene, was expressed in the PD2 mice. Morphometric studies of the pancreas of a PD2 mouse revealed that the number of pancreatic islets present was less than that in the non-transgenic mice, indicating disturbed islet neogenesis. These results suggest that impaired insulin secretion in disrupted islets causes hyperglycemia. In addition, the phenotype of PD2 transgenic mice similar to that of the HNF-1alpha gene-deficient mouse, which displays growth retardation and impaired viability. These results indicate that HNF1alphaP291 expression driven by the porcine insulin promoter, together with the cytomegalovirus enhancer, induces a diabetic phenotype in transgenic mice.