Urine transgenic animals

Therapeutic proteins have also been successfully expressed in the urine and seminal fluid of various transgenic animals. Again, issues of sample collection, volume of collected fluid and the appropriateness of these systems render unlikely their industrial-scale adoption. One system that does show industrial promise, however, is the targeted production of recombinant proteins in the egg white of transgenic birds. Targeted production is achieved by choice of an appropriate... 

Transgenic laboratory animals are mainly mice, which are useful to the pre-clinical scientists and pharmacologists, but for these investigations they remain a challenge, often with a reduced life span. There is a paucity of published data for these animals, and their plasma and urine biochemistry are not well characterized. Animals with inherited disorders occur in several species, but these animals are generally not used in toxicology studies. Some of the differences between strains found within published studies are no greater than data sets for the same strain obtained from different laboratories. 

Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland, have developed transgenic mice that produce human growth hormone in the walls of their bladders. For obvious reasons, mice are not ideal for large-scale production of chemicals, but Wall s experiments nevertheless show that the concept works. At present, it is too early to know whether urine farming will prove feasible. Yields from the bladder are about 10,000 times lower than those from the mammary glands. In addition, collecting urine from farm animals could prove to be a very tricky business. 

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