Generation and characterization of a novel transgenic mouse harboring conditional nuclear factor-kappa B/RelA knockout alleles

Background Nuclear Factor-Kappa B (NF-kB) is a family of transcription factors that are important in embryonic development, inflammation, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and cancer. The 65 kDa RelA subunit is the major transcriptional activator of the NF-kB pathways. Whole-body deficiency of RelA leads to massive apoptosis of liver hepatocytes and death in utero. To study the role of RelA in physiology and in disease states in a manner that circumvents this embryonic lethal phenotype, we have generated a mouse with RelA conditional knockout (CKO) alleles containing loxP sites that are deleted by activated Cre recombinase.