Expression data from intestinal crypts and stroma of wild type and late generation (4th generation) telomerase-deficient mice

Telomeres shorten with each round of cell division, and the expression of telomerase serves to lengthen telomeres. In the absence of telomerase, telomeres shorten to the point of uncapping and causes defects in tissues with high turnover, including the intestinal epithelium. In mice lacking telomerase (e.g. mTR-/-), telomeres critically shorten after several generations of telomerase deficiency, with pronounced defects in their intestine. Crypt epithelium and underlying stroma were each isolated from wild type (WT) and late generation (4th generation or G4) mice and used for mRNA expression profiling. We sought out to determine the differences in gene expression profile between wild type and late generation (4th generation) mTR-/- mouse small intestinal crypts and stroma. Intestinal crypts and stroma from age-matched and sex-matched mice were isolated for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.