Production of ES1 Plasma Carboxylesterase Knockout Mice for Toxicity Studies

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2011

Chem Res Toxicol 2011 Sep 7. [Epub ahead of print]

Production of ES1 Plasma Carboxylesterase Knockout Mice for Toxicity Studies

Duysen, EG;Koentgen, F;Williams, GR;Timperley, CM;Schopfer, LM;Cerasoli, DM;Lockridge, O

Eppley Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198-5950, USA.

Service type: Knockout mice

Abstract

The LD(50) for soman is 10-20-fold higher for a mouse than a human. The difference in susceptibility is attributed to the presence of carboxylesterase in mouse but not in human plasma. Our goal was to make a mouse lacking plasma carboxylesterase. We used homologous recombination to inactivate the carboxylesterase ES1 gene on mouse chromosome 8 by deleting exon 5 and by introducing a frame shift for amino acids translated from exons 6 to 13. ES1-/- mice have no detectable carboxylesterase activity in plasma but have normal carboxylesterase activity in tissues. Homozygous ES1-/- mice and wild-type littermates were tested for response to a nerve agent model compound (soman coumarin) at 3 mg/kg sc. This dose intoxicated both genotypes but was lethal only to ES1-/- mice. This demonstrated that plasma carboxylesterase protects against a relatively high toxicity organophosphorus compound. The ES1-/- mouse should be an appropriate model for testing highly toxic nerve agents and for evaluating protection strategies against the toxicity of nerve agents.

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