Candidate Genes for Panhypopituitarism identified by gene expression profile

Prop1 controls the expression of genes besides Pit1 that are important for cell mgration, survival and differentiation in the mouse and human pituitary gland. Microarray analysis was used to compare pituitary RNA from newborn Prop1 and Pit1 mutants and their wild type littermates. Total RNA was collected and pooled from Prop1df/df, Porp1+/+, Pit1dw/dw, and Pit+/+ at the age of P1. 5 pools per genotype were hybridized to the Affymetrix Mouse Genome 430 2.0 array.

在小鼠与人类垂体组织中，成对同源框蛋白1（Prop1）可调控除垂体特异性转录因子1（Pit1）之外的基因表达，此类基因对垂体细胞的迁移、存活与分化具有关键作用。本研究采用基因微阵列分析技术，对比新生Prop1突变体、Pit1突变体及其野生型同窝仔鼠的垂体RNA样本。于出生后第1天（P1），收集Prop1^df/df、Prop1^+/+、Pit1^dw/dw及Pit1^+/+小鼠的总RNA并进行混合，每个基因型设置5个混合样本，随后将各混合样本与Affymetrix（昂飞）小鼠基因组430 2.0基因芯片进行杂交。