Kidney-Targeted Birt-Hogg-Dube Gene Inactivation in a Mouse Model: Erk1/2 and Akt-mTOR Activation, Cell Hyperproliferation, and Polycystic Kidneys

Homozygous loss of BHD may initiate renal tumorigenesis in the mouse. The conditional BHD knockout mouse may be a useful research model for dissecting multistep kidney carcinogenesis, and rapamycin may be considered as a potential treatment for Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome.