Adapting in vitro embryonic stem cell differentiation to the study of locus control regions

Numerous locus control region (LCR) activities have been discovered in gene loci important to immune cell development and function. LCRs are a distinct class of cis-acting gene regulatory elements that appear to contain all the DNA sequence information required to establish an independently and predictably regulated gene expression program at any genomic site in native chromatin of a whole animal. As such, LCR-regulated transgenic reporter systems provide invaluable opportunities to investigate the mechanisms of gene regulatory DNA action during development. Furthermore the qualities of LCR-driven gene expression, including spatiotemporal specificity and “integration site-independence” would be highly desirable to incorporate into vectors used in therapeutic genetic engineering. Thus, advancement in the methods used to investigate LCRs is of considerable basic and translational significance. We study the LCR present in the mouse T cell receptor (TCR)-α gene locus. Until recently, transgenic mice provided the only experimental model capable of supporting the entire spectrum of LCR activities. We have recently reported complete manifestation of TCRα LCR function in T cells derived in vitro from mouse embryonic stem cells (ESC), thus validating a complete cell culture model for the full range of LCR activities seen in transgenic mice. Here we discuss the critical parameters involved in studying LCR-regulated gene expression during in vitro hematopoietic differentiation from ESCs. This advance provides an approach to speed progress in the LCR field, and facilitate the clinical application of its findings, particularly to the genetic engineering of T cells.