Gene expression analysis of mouse embryonic brain

The earliest stages of mouse brain development are characterized by the differentiation of progenitor cells into neurons and glial cells, migration of immature neurons to their final destination in the brain and the initialization of axon outgrowth and circuit formation. In different brain regions these processes occur at slightly different stages of development. As gene expression patterns greatly differ between different cell populations and brain regions, the period of early brain development is characterized by very dynamic gene expression profiles. Therefore, we assessed gene expression in brains from mice at different stages of embryonic development (E9, E10, E11, E14 and E17) using Affymetrix GeneChIP mouse Gene 1.0 ST arrays.小鼠脑发育的最早阶段，以祖细胞向神经元与神经胶质细胞的分化、未成熟神经元向脑内最终定位区域的迁移，以及轴突生长与神经环路形成的启动为特征。不同脑区的上述过程发生于略有差异的发育时段。由于不同细胞群与脑区间的基因表达模式存在显著差异，早期脑发育阶段的基因表达谱具有高度动态性。为此，本研究采用Affymetrix GeneChIP 小鼠Gene 1.0 ST 基因芯片阵列，对不同胚胎发育阶段（E9、E10、E11、E14及E17）的小鼠脑组织开展了基因表达检测。