Human glial fibrillary acidic protein gene promoter targets hepatic and pancreatic stellate cells in transgenic bama mini-pigs

Hepatic and pancreatic stellate cells (hscs and pscs) have been considered to be closely associated with the pathogenesis of fibrosis,offering a hopeful therapeutic target for treating hepatic and pancreatic fibrosis. recently,we have generated transgenic mini-pigs carrying astrocyte-specific expression of dsred regulated by the 2.2-kb human glial fibrillary acidic protein (hgfap) gene promoter. this study was intended to examine whether the targeted transgene expression of dsred will be present in the porcine hscs and pscs. histological fluorescent imaging showed several dsred-expressing cells were interspersed between the parenchyma cells. moreover,these dsredexpressing cells were checked as indeed hscs and pscs by co-labeling with gfap immunoreactivity. thus,our results demonstrate the 2.2-kb hgfap gene promoter holds matched regulatory elements therefore is capable of introducing specific expression of transgene in porcine hscs and pscs,providing a novel strategy to selectively manipulate the hscs and pscs in a large animal model. copyright © 2016 zoological society of pakistan.