Transgenic Human Dopamine Beta-hydroxylase Mouse Model

Applications

Mouse model that utilizes a BAC to express human dopamine beta-hydroxylase in the brain.

Key Benefits

• In vivo approach to dissect role of single genes in the nervous system.
• May be used in the study of how human variants of dopamine beta-hydroxylase affect norepinephrine signaling in the brain.

Technical Summary

Dopamine beta-hydroxylase is encoded by the DBH gene and converts dopamine to norepinephrine. These signaling molecules are involved in a variety of processes important in Parkinson disease, drug dependence, and mental illness. Researchers at Emory have developed a mouse model to examine how natural human variants of dopamine beta-hydroxylase affect the signaling molecules dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain.