Published ahead of print on May 5, 2008 Am. J. Respir. Cell Mol. Biol. 2008, doi:10.1165/rcmb.2007-0385OC
Submitted on October 25, 2007 Validation of Nasal Potential Difference Measurements in Gut-corrected CF Knockout MiceUta Griesenbach1*,1 Imperial College London, Department of Gene Therapy, Faculty of Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute and the UK Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy Consortium, London, United Kingdom * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: u.griesenbach{at}imperial.ac.uk.
Attempts at correcting the nasal potential difference (PD) in cystic fibrosis (CF) mice have long been used in preclinical gene and small molecule therapy development. However, in general, CF mice suffer from intestinal disease, are runted and have high mortality rates and are, therefore, difficult to work with, in particular, if large numbers are required. Because of this large scale PD studies in CF mice have not been carried out. Working with CF mice has become substantially easier after the generation of the gut-corrected CF-knockout mouse. Fatty acid binding promoter (FABp)-mediated expression of CFTR in the gut, but not the airways, prevents the intestinal disease of the CF knockout mouse. This model has given us the unique opportunity to systematically study PDs in large numbers of CF mice. The nose, but not the lungs of these animals mimic the bioelectric defect seen in man. We have, therefore, assessed the bioelectrics of the respiratory epithelium comparing FABp-CF and wild-type mice. The large body of data gathered in CF and wild-type mice allowed us, for the first time, to establish power calculations that should inform sample sizes required in gene and small molecule therapy development. In addition we address the important issues of intra-animal variability as well as intra- and inter-operator variability for scoring the traces, and the effect of age and sex on nasal PD in CF mice. These data should allow a more informed use of CF animals in future studies.
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