Research Article

Brain-Specific Superoxide Dismutase 2 Deficiency Causes Perinatal Death with Spongiform Encephalopathy in Mice

Figure 1

Generation of B-Sod2−/−. (a) DNA fragments amplified from the wild (500-bp) or lox allele (358-bp) were detected in tail DNA. The Cre transgene was confirmed by PCR with Cre primers. A 208 bp DNA fragment was detected in knockout and heterozygous mice using Cre PCR primers. A 401 bp DNA fragment amplified from the deletion allele was detected in the brains of knockout and heterozygous mice. (b) The results of Western blot analysis of SOD2 protein in two-week-old B-Sod2−/− and control. Protein extracts from the brain, liver, kidney, and heart of B-Sod2−/− or control were immunoblotted with anti-SOD2 or anti-actin antibodies. (c) The growth rate of body weight increase in B-Sod2−/− (), indicated by closed circle, progressively decreased compared with control (, ), indicated by open circle. (d) The brain weight of B-Sod2−/− at 16–19 days of age () was significantly lower than that of brains from age-matched control (, ∗∗∗). (e) The cumulative survival of B-Sod2−/− (), indicated by closed circle, and control (), indicated by open circle.
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