Viruses can spread from infected cells to uninfected cells via two main routes: cell-free or direct cell-to-cell transmission. Tetherin is an antiviral protein that blocks enveloped virion release into the extracellular milieu and evidence suggests it significantly reduces cell-free plasma viremia.

These targeted mutant mice conditionally express the human BST2 (bone marrow stromal cell antigen 2; also called tetherin) cDNA and an EGFP fluorescent reporter from a CAG promoter. Cre recombinase-mediated excision of a floxed stop permits selective control of tetherin/EGFP expression.

When crossed with CMV-cre mice to induce widespread heterozygous expression of human tetherin, compound mutant progeny are smaller and more prone to die prematurely than littermates. Flow cytometric analysis of splenocytes and thymocytes from the compound mutants reveals unexplained variable levels of hTetherin expression that can be correlated with reduced body weight. No specific pathology has been associated with the shortened lifespan. Reduced body size has not been associated with animals crossed with CD4-cre (inducing T cell-specific expression), CD2-cre (for T and B cell expression), or Vav1-cre animals (expressing in all hematopoietic cells).

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Cre-mediated excision of a floxed Stop cassette enables directed expression of the human tetherin (BST2) cDNA and an EGFP reporter useful in studies of viral infection.

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B6.Cg-Gt(ROSA)26Sor<tm1(CAG-BST2 -EGFP)Bsz>/J Frozen Embryo

B6.Cg-Gt(ROSA)26Sor<tm1(CAG-BST2,-EGFP)Bsz>/J