Transcriptional profiling reveals an upregulation of genes related to Sphingolipid metabolism and Oxidative phosphorilation in HRas and NRas double-KO mice (DKO), which die because of a severe respiratory distress

We used microarrays to investigate gene expression changes in the lungs of Control, Hras-KO, Nras-KO and DKO mice. These DKO animals die at birth because of respiratory distress, caused by an impaired lung maturation. N-acetyl cysteine antenatal treatment ameliorates the newborn lethality. Manually selected lungs of Control, HRas-KO, NRas-KO and DKO from postnatal day 0 were used for RNA extraction using the TRIZOL protocol. RNA was further purified using Qiagen Rneasy mini kit. Each RNA sample for each microarray was obtained from one individual animal.