Chemokine Knockout Mice

As the chemokine family continues to grow in number, it is becoming increasingly important to determine the distinct function of each molecule. This is particularly important because of the apparent overlapping biological activity of some chemokines in vitro . One approach to determining the unique role of each chemokine is to genetically generate “knockout” mice by homologous recombination. Such mice are selectively deficient in the targeted gene and therefore the immunologic phenotype of these chemokine-deficient mice can be analyzed.