B6;129X1-Il15ra^tm1Ama/J

Stock number: 003723
Product name: IL-15Ra KO
Research areas: Cancer Research, Hematological Research, Immunology, Inflammation and Autoimmunity Research, Internal/Organ Research, Research Tools

Description

Mice that are homozygous null for Il15ra are lymphopenic as result of decreased proliferation and homing of lymphocytes to peripheral lymph nodes. Deficiencies are seen in levels of natural killer and T cells.

Detailed description

Il15ra mediates the high-affinity binding of Il15, a pleiotropic cytokine implicated in the development of innate immune cells. Mice that are homozygous null for Il15ra are viable and fertile. They are lymphopenic as result of decreased proliferation and homing of lymphocytes to peripheral lymph nodes. As a result, marked hypocellularity of lymph nodes is observed. Deficiencies are seen in levels of natural killer cells, natural killer T cells, CD8⁺ T lymphocytes, TCR delta/gamma intraepithelial lymphocytes and memory phenotype CD8⁺ T cells.

Loss of IL15RA expression has also been shown to induce a functional oxidative shift in fast muscles, substantially increasing fatigue resistance and exercises capacity. Knockout mice run greater distances and have greater ambulatory activity than control animals.

Development

A targeting construct containing a phosphoglyceraldehyde driven neomycin resistance cassette flanked by loxP sequences and a phosphoglyceraldehyde driven thymidine kinase gene cassette was used to replace exons 2 and 3 of the Il15ra gene. The construct was electroporated into RW-4 ES ES cells. Selected ES cells were injected into C57BL/6 blastocysts.

Allele

Symbol: Il15ra^tm1Ama
Name: targeted mutation 1, Averil Ma
MGI accession ID: MGI:1934016
Generation method: Targeted
Attributes: Null/Knockout
Marker symbol: Il15ra
Marker name: interleukin 15 receptor, alpha chain
Chromosome: 2
Strain of origin: 129X1/SvJ
Molecular note: A genomic fragment containing exons 2 and 3 was replaced by a neomycin resistance cassette. These sequences encode the ligand binding and proline/threonine rich extracellular domains. Northern blot analysis demonstrated that the transcript was not detectable in liver RNA from homozygous mice.