Transcriptome of normal mammary glands of Sprague-Dawley rats at six stages of development: pre-pubertal, peri-pubertal, pubertal, lactation, adult parous and age-matched nulliparous

There is a lack of systematic investigations of large-scale transcriptome patterns associated with normal breast development. Herein, we profiled whole-transcriptome (by microarrays) of normal mammary glands in female Sprague-Dawley rats, an animal model widely used in breast cancer research, across six distinctive developmental stages – pre-pubertal, peri-pubertal, pubertal, lactation, and adult parous and age-matched nulliparous.目前针对与正常乳腺发育相关的大规模转录组（transcriptome）特征，尚缺乏系统性的研究。本研究以乳腺癌研究中广泛使用的动物模型——雌性斯普拉格-道利（Sprague-Dawley, SD）大鼠为研究对象，采用基因芯片（microarray）技术对其正常乳腺组织完成全转录组（whole-transcriptome）谱分析，覆盖了六个独特的发育阶段：青春期前（pre-pubertal）、围青春期（peri-pubertal）、青春期（pubertal）、泌乳期（lactation）、成年经产以及同年龄段未产雌性个体。