Knockout of GPx4 gene in mouse keratinocyte. Mus musculus

Comparative analysis of gene expression in cultured primary keratinocytes isolated from newborn control (K14-cre; GPx4fl/+) and knockout (K14-cre; GPx4fl/fl) mice. Selenoproteins are essential for skin function, as targeted abolition of selenoproteins in epidermal tissue results in newborn mice manifesting gross abnormalities of skin and hair, accompanied by retarded growth and premature death. To investigate whether lack of a single selenoprotein could induce similar phenotypic effect in mice, we generated keratinocyte-specific knockout mice lacking glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPx4), an essential selenoprotein in skin, to examine phenotypic changes resulting from the lack of GPx4 in skin. Ablation of GPx4 results in focal alopecia and disturbed hair follicle morphogenesis, with GPx4 being essential during early stages of hair follicle morphogenesis as well as for keratinocyte adhesion and proliferation in culture. Overall design: We have generated mice with selective removal of the GPx4 gene in keratinocytes under the control of Keratin-14-cre (K14-cre) promoter. Comparative microarray analysis was performed on RNA samples taken from pooled primary keratinocytes from knockout and control mice from the same litter. Array replicates were performed using RNA samples from three different litters.