Monika Baxa, Marian Hruska-Plochan, Stefan Juhas, Petr Vodicka, Antonin Pavlok, Jana Juhasova, Atsushi Miyanohara, Tetsuya Nejime, Jiri Klima, Monika Macakova, Silvia Marsala, Andreas Weiss, Svatava Kubickova, Petra Musilova, Radek Vrtel, Emily M Sontag, Leslie M Thompson, Jan Schier, Hana Hansikova, David S Howland, Elena Cattaneo, Marian DiFiglia, Martin Marsala, Jan Motlik
BACKGROUND: Some promising treatments for Huntington's disease (HD) may require pre-clinical testing in large animals. Minipig is a suitable species because of its large gyrencephalic brain and long lifespan. OBJECTIVE: To generate HD transgenic (TgHD) minipigs encoding huntingtin (HTT)1-548 under the control of human HTT promoter. METHODS: Transgenesis was achieved by lentiviral infection of porcine embryos. PCR assessment of gene transfer, observations of behavior, and postmortem biochemical and immunohistochemical studies were conducted...
2013: Journal of Huntington's Disease