Molecular Mechanism Of Glucose Homeostasis Regulated By Pax6 Gene In Mouse

The mouse genome manipulation is a crucial approach for establishment of human disease models and for study of gene function because of the high homology (>90%) between mouse and human genome. Recently. ENU induced mutagenesis has been used extensively for large scale mutagenesis and phenotypic screening to generate mutant mouse strains.using chromosomal mapping with microsatellite markers and sequencing ,we can find mutant gene and further to study the gene's function.Pax6 is a highly conserved transcription factor that belongs to the Pax gene family. In both vertebrates and invertebrates, Pax6 is an essential transcription factor for the development of eye, nervous system and endocrine glands. In addition, Pax6 has been found critical for pancreatic development. In the naturally mutant mice of Pax6^Sey and Pax6^Sey-Neu, the islet structure is abnormal with decreased number of all four types of endocrine cells. Pax6 heterozygous mutant mice displayed islet dysfunction and homozygous mutant mice showed absent of a cells. Human studies revealed that population with Pax6 mutation are glucose intolerant or diabetic. These observations indicate that Pax6 mutation has an important effect on islet function.Diabetes is a disease of abnormal metabolism with blood glucose levels constantly higher than normal levels. The characteristic of diabetes is insulin...