Transcription profiling of mouse pancreas at embryonic days 14.5 and 16.5 from animals lacking beta-catenin, a mediator of Wnt signaling and a component of the cadherin-catenin epithelial adhesion complex

Beta-catenin is an essential mediator of canonical Wnt signaling and a central component of the cadherin-catenin epithelial adhesion complex. Dysregulation of beta-catenin expression has been described in pancreatic neoplasia. Newly published studies have suggested that beta-catenin is critical for normal pancreatic development although these reports reached somewhat different conclusions. In addition, the molecular mechanisms by which loss of beta-catenin affects pancreas development are not well understood. The goals of this study then were; 1] to further investigate the role of beta-catenin in pancreatic development using a conditional knockout approach and 2] to identify possible mechanisms by which loss of beta-catenin disrupts pancreatic development. A Pdx1-cre mouse line was used to delete a floxed beta-catenin allele specifically in the developing pancreas, and embryonic pancreata were studied by immunohistochemistry and microarray analysis. Experiment Overall Design: Parameter: embryonic pancreas from wild type and Pdx1Cre/+; beta-cateninflox/flox Experiment Overall Design: Sample type: RNA Experiment Overall Design: Source name: Embryonic day 14.6 and 16.5 pancreas Experiment Overall Design: Organism: Mus Musculus Experiment Overall Design: Strain: Derived from an intercross of Pdx1Cre/+ ; beta-cateninflox/+ mice. Experiment Overall Design: Extracted molecule:Total RNA Experiment Overall Design: In the study, we hybridized RNA from Embryonic day 14.6 and 16.5 pancreas of wild type (WT) control and Pdx1Cre/+; beta-cateninflox/flox beta-catenin null in the pancreas) embryonic pancreas to Affymetrix MOE430 2.0 GeneChip® arrays containing 45,101 well characterized mouse genes/ESTs.β-连环蛋白（Beta-catenin）是经典Wnt信号通路的必需介导因子，同时也是钙粘蛋白-连环蛋白上皮黏附复合物的核心组分。胰腺肿瘤发生过程中已报道存在β-连环蛋白表达失调的现象。新近发表的研究提示，β-连环蛋白对正常胰腺发育至关重要，但相关研究得出的结论略有分歧。此外，β-连环蛋白缺失影响胰腺发育的分子机制目前尚未得到充分阐明。 本研究的目标在于：1）通过条件性基因敲除技术，进一步探究β-连环蛋白在胰腺发育中的作用；2）解析β-连环蛋白缺失扰乱胰腺发育的潜在分子机制。本研究采用Pdx1-cre小鼠品系，在发育中的胰腺内特异性敲除两侧带有loxP位点的β-连环蛋白等位基因，并通过免疫组织化学与微阵列分析对胚胎胰腺进行研究。 实验整体设计： 参数：野生型与Pdx1Cre/+；β-连环蛋白flox/flox小鼠的胚胎胰腺 样本类型：RNA 样本来源：胚胎第14.6天和第16.5天的胰腺 生物体：小家鼠（Mus Musculus） 品系：源自Pdx1Cre/+；β-连环蛋白flox/+小鼠的互交繁育 提取分子：总RNA（Total RNA） 本研究将野生型（WT）对照组及Pdx1Cre/+；β-连环蛋白flox/flox（胰腺内β-连环蛋白完全缺失）胚胎的胚胎第14.6天和第16.5天胰腺的RNA，与搭载45101个经过充分注释的小鼠基因/表达序列标签（ESTs）的Affymetrix MOE430 2.0 GeneChip®芯片进行杂交。