Gene expression signatures in mouse epidermis with transglutaminase 1 deficiency

The gene expression profile of 19.5 dpc Tgm1–/– mouse epidermis was compared with that of wild-type mice in duplicate samples, which were analyzed using microarrays. The expression of 2,502 entities was increased more than 2-fold in Tgm1–/– epidermis vs wild-type epidermis, and 1,403 of those entities corresponded to protein-coding genes. Gene ontology (GO) analysis of those entities revealed that the top 15.5% of 90 GO terms with corrected P < 0.05 were related to defense or immune responses. The entities for 177 annotated transcripts showed more than a 5-fold increase in expression in Tgm1–/– epidermis vs wild-type epidermis and those were also subjected to GO analysis. Interestingly, 24 genes from those entities were sorted into the category of defense response (P<2.78E-11; corrected P<1.50E-07). Gene expression was measured in the epidermis of 19.5 dpc wild-type and transglutaminase 1 -/- mice (n=2).