The coagulation factor III gene (F3; tissue factor [TF], thromboplastin or CD142) encodes a cell surface glycoprotein that is the primary activator of the blood coagulation cascade.
The TFflox allele has loxP sites flanking exon 1 of the coagulation factor III gene. Mice homozygous for the floxed allele are viable and fertile with no reported abnormalities.
When bred to mice that express Cre recombinase, the resulting offspring will have TF RNA (and functional TF protein expression) deleted in cre-expressing tissues.
For example, when bred to germline Cre-expressing mice (EIIa-Cre; Stock No. 003724), the resulting TF global knockout homozygotes die in utero.
TFflox mice allow studying cell/tissue-specific TF deficiency in myeloid cells (LysM-Cre ; Stock No. 004781), megakaryocytes and platelets (Pf4-iCre; Stock No. 008535), vascular smooth muscle (SM22-Cre; see Stock No. 017491) and hepatocytes (Alb-Cre; Stock No. 003574).
In addition, breeding TFflox mice to Tie2-Cre transgenic mice (Stock No. 008863) results in offspring with TF deficiency in both endothelial cells and hematopoietic cells. Such mice may also be useful in studying sickle cell anemia in the Townes model (Stock No. 013071).
