Tissue-specific KO rats

Limitations of tissue-specific Knockout rat models

• Rat line creation requires the insertion of exogenous sequences (loxP, FRT) that can deregulate transcription and splicing
  → Risk can be greatly minimized by applying in-depth bio-informatic, genetic, and bibliographic analysis
• Few deleter rats are available, requiring the creation of new Cre-deleter rats
  → New tissue- or cell-specific Cre rat lines can be produced by genOway in parallel to the conditional rat model
• Inactivation of the gene of interest in one cell type may occur during cell type differentiation, resulting in an impaired phenotype and/or modified cell physiology
  →  Limitation can be bypassed by applying conditions such as time-specific gene inactivation
• To obtain tissue specificity, a crossing step with a deleter rat line implies a time-consuming production of cohorts
  →  This "time" issue must be anticipated and integrated in the scientific consulting prior to model development