The First Transgenic Pig Model of Huntington’s Disease

A team of scientists led by Prof. Liangxue Lai, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, and Prof. Li Xiao-Jiang from University of Emory, U.S.A, has successfully produced transgenic pig models of Huntington’s disease, which has shown typical symptom of this human disease. This work was published on Human Molecular Genetics on 15th, October, 2010 as a cover story.

Using the transgenic vectors constructed by Prof. Li’s lab, professor Lai’s team has successfully produced 6 transgenic pigs expressing the mutant Huntington gene through somatic cell nuclear transfer technology in assistance with Professor Weiwang Gu from Southern Medical University, China. To date, the transgenic pig has produced offspring through normal breeding.

 As results, postnatal death, dyskinesia and chorea-like movement were observed in some transgenic pigs that express mutant Huntington. Importantly, the transgenic HD pigs, unlike mice expressing the same transgene, displayed typical apoptotic neurons with DNA fragmentation in their brains, which is a new finding in Huntington’s disease models, suggested that species differences determine neuropathology and underscored the importance of large mammalian animals for modeling neurological disorders. This pig model can greatly enhance study of the pathology and drug discovery for Huntington’s disease.