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Louis-Marie Houdebine

Publications and source records attributed to Louis-Marie Houdebine.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2002

Animal transgenesis: recent data and perspectives.

Gene transfer to generate transgenic animals is used more and more to study gene regulation and function. It is also an essential tool to prepare pharmaceuticals or pig organs for transplantation to humans. It is also expected to be a potent way to generate farm animals having traits that cannot emerge by conventional selection. During the last few years, the different techniques to generate transgenic animals and obtain a well-controlled expression of the transgenes have been quite significantly improved. This paper is a brief summary of the most recent relevant data in this field.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

[Transgenes and their medical applications].

Transgenesis consists of introducing stably a foreign genetic information into the genome of a multicellular organism. These techniques used for the first time in 1980 for the animals and 1983 for plants have multiple applications of which many are directly or not related to medicine. Transgenesis has become one of the essential tools to study the role of genes in the control of biological functions. This approach is logically accompanied by the generation of transgenic animal lines for the study of human diseases and the test of new pharmaceuticals. Milk from transgenic animals as well as leaves and seeds from transgenic plants are ready to become an essential source of proteins having essential therapeutical effects. Genetically modified pigs are expected to be resistant to rejection mechanisms to become the source of organs or cells for patients. The application of transgenesis in agriculture and breeding is still in infancy. It may contribute quite significantly to provide human communities with food in sufficient amount, having improved nutritional properties and produced using a milder and less polluting methods.

Agriculture↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Transient expression in mammalian cells of transgenes transcribed from the Cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter.

Gene constructs containing the Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter and a sequence coding either for a green fluorescent protein (GFP) or for firefly luciferase were transfected into Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Both reporter genes were expressed to significant levels. The 35S promoter was 40 times less active than the human eF1 alpha promoter, which is known to be one of the most potent promoters in mammalian cells. The 35S promoter must therefore be considered to be a promoter of significant potency in mammalian cells. RT-PCR analysis suggested that transcription initiation in CHO cells occurred between the TATA box and the transcription start site of the 35S promoter that function in plant cells. Further analysis by 5'RACE confirmed that transcription was initiated in CHO cells at different sites located essentially between the TATA box and the plant transcription start site, showing that 35S promoter activity in animal cells is due to the presence of promoter elements that are functional in mammalian cells, but that are not those used in plants. The data reported here raise the possibility that genes controlled by the 35S promoter, which is commonly used in transgenic plants, have the potential for expression in animal cells.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Transgenesis for the study and the control of lactation.

The study and the control of milk synthesis are required to decipher the mechanisms of gene expression, to improve milk production, to modify milk composition, to induce a resistance to diseases in the mammary gland and to produce recombinant proteins of pharmaceutical interest. Transgenesis has become a mandatory tool to reach these goals. The use of transgenesis is still limited by the difficulty of adding foreign genes in farm animals and mainly by replacing genes by homologous recombination. Transgene expression is also often ill-controlled. The present paper summarizes the current progress in this field with a particular emphasis on expression vectors for transgenes.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Relations between animal transgenesis and reproduction.

Transgenesis has become an essential tool for the study of gene expression mechanisms and functions. Transgenesis is also more and more used for biotechnological applications such as the study of human diseases, the adaptation of pig organs to humans, the production of pharmaceutical proteins in milk and likely in the future for the improvement of animal production. The use of transgenesis relies on the efficiency of gene transfer. New tools have been recently designed to improve gene transfer. The methods of gene transfer are highly dependent on the techniques of animal reproduction. Conversely, the need to improve transgenesis urges researchers to study some of the key steps in reproduction and to find new techniques for gene transfer. This paper summarises the recent data and the perspectives offered by animal transgenesis.

Animals↗