Animal model
Until now, two animal models were used to understand better the role of CMG2:
- Three different laboratories generated CMG2 Knock-out mice, each time targeting a different exon (1, 2, 3). The main phenotype observed for these mice, were a parturition defect due to an aberrant deposition of extracellular matrix in the uterus and cervix. As a result, the myometrial cell layers were disrupted, leading to a decreased contractibility of the uterus, and failure to give birth. But the mice didn’t develop nodule and ECM deposition was not observed in other organs.
- CMG2 role in zebrafish has been recently investigated. It has been shown that it plays an important role in the mitotic spindle positioning of the dorsal epiblast cells in the developing embryo. Lack of CMG2 results in a defect in the positioning of the division plan of specific cells during the fish development (4).
(1) Reeves et al, 2012 (2) Peters et al, 2012 (3) Unpublished communication (4) Castanon et al., 2013
