Tristetraprolin (TTP) regulated splenic transcriptome in "Triple KO" mice

Tristetraprolin (TTP) binds to specific AU-rich elements in the 3''UTR of certain transcripts and regulates post-transcriptional gene expression by increasing the rate of mRNA turnover. In this study, we evaluated the effects of TTP deficiency on the overall gene expression of spleen tissue, in order to discover tissue specific targets of TTP under normal physiologic conditions. We utilized "Triple KO" (Zfp36-/-/TNFR1-/-/TNFR2-/-) mice that are deficient in TTP and two TNF receptors and compared the transcriptomic changes to "Double KO" (TNFR1-/-/TNFR2-/-) and WT mice. Spleen mRNA from four WT, four "Double KO", and four "Triple mice" was subjected to RNA-Seq in two phases. All the animals used in this study were males between the ages of 12-14 weeks and were on a mixed (75% C57BL/6NTac, 25% 129/SVEV) background. Overall design: Examination of splenic gene expression difference between "Triple KO"-WT and "double KO"-WT data sets