User:Wiki emma johnson/rag2

=RAG2-gamma Knockout Mice=

The Recombination Activating Gene 2 (RAG2)-gamma (c) knockout mouse is a severely immunodeficient model system that can be used in studies addressing vaccine development, cancer biology, or transplantation paradigms. This mutated mouse was generated by back-crossing of two immunocompromised mouse models, the RAG2 KO and Gamma (c) KO mice.

Homozygous gamma (c) knockout (KO) KO mice lack the gamma (c) receptor gene and thus, lymphocyte development in this KO model is severely compromised. As a result, Natural Killer (NK) cell population is severely depleted in these mice, but they do have a small number of T and B cells.

In order to completely eliminate the T and B lymphocyte population in an animal model, the gamma (c) KO was back-crossed onto the RAG-2 KO mouse. Homozygous RAG-2 KO mice lack several exons of the RAG-2 gene (recombinase activating gene-2), and exhibit the inability to initiate V(D)J rearrangement and they are therefore incapable of making any T/B cells. In that regard, the RAG-2-Gamma(c) KO is presumably severely immunodeficient. Both the RAG2 KO and the Gamma(c) KO strains have been crossed onto many backgrounds, including the Balb/c or C57BL/6.

=History= The Rag2 mouse was developed in the laboratory of Frederick W. Alt at Columbia University. The model was created by targeting the Rag2 gene in the CCE line of Embryonic Stem Cells and injecting the targeted cells into blastocysts.