User:Rockpocket/MGP/NF1

Model organisms
Model organisms have been used in the study of NF1 function. A conditional knockout mouse line, called Nf1tm1a(KOMP)Wtsi was generated as part of the International Knockout Mouse Consortium program — a high-throughput mutagenesis project to generate and distribute animal models of disease to interested scientists — at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Male and female animals underwent a standardized phenotypic screen to determine the effects of deletion. Twenty six tests were carried out on mutant mice and four significant abnormalities were observed. Over half the homozygous mutant embryos identified during gestation were dead, and in a seperate study none survived until weaning. The remaining tests were carried out on heterozygous mutant adult mice: females displayed abnormal hair cycling while males had an decreased B cell number and an increased monocyte cell number.