Video Article Production of Apolipoprotein C-III Knockout Rabbits using Zinc Finger

Apolipoprotein (Apo) C-III (ApoCIII) resides on the surface of plasma chylomicron (CM), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and high density lipoproteins (HDL). It has been recognized that high levels of plasma ApoCIII constitutea risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Elevated plasma ApoCIII level often correlates with insulin resistance, obesity, and hypertriglyceridemia. Invaluable knowledge on the roles of ApoCIIIin lipid metabolisms and CVD has been obtained from transgenic mouse models including ApoCIII knockout (KO) mice; however, it is noted that the metabolism of lipoprotein in mice is different from that of humans in many aspects. It is not known until now whether elevated plasma ApoCIII is directly atherogenic. We worked to develop ApoCIII KO rabbits in the present study based on the hypothesis that rabbits can serve as a reasonablemodelfor studying human lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis. Zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) sets targeting rabbit ApoCIIIgene were subjected to in vitro validation prior to embryo microinjection. The mRNA was injected to the cytoplasm of 35 rabbit pronuclear stage embryos, and evaluated the mutation rates at the blastocyst state. Of sixteen blastocysts that were assayed, a satisfactory 50 % mutation rate (8/16) a