Fig. 1.
NSE-apoE transgenes. The rat NSE promoter (Forss-Petter et al., 1990) was used to direct the expression of two distinct human apoE minigenes in neurons (Bellosta et al., 1995a). From 5′ to 3′, the apoE3 minigene consists of part of the untranslated exon 1 (from the AvrII site), the first intron, and the first 6 bp of exon 2 from the human APOE gene, a fragment of human apoE cDNA contributing the entire apoE coding region, and a genomic segment representing exon 4 noncoding sequence and 112 bp of 3′ untranslated region including the polyadenylation signal. The apoE4 minigene was similar in structure but also included the third intron of the human APOE gene. The sequences of the coding regions of both transgenes were compared to ensure that the only difference between them was the base change in exon 4 encoding cysteine (C) in apoE3 and arginine (R) in apoE4 at amino acid position 112.1, 2, 3, and4 indicate exons of the human APOEgene.