Stress-induced gene expression alterations in the amygdala of C57BL/6J and SWR/J mice.. Mus musculus

Comparison of changes in gene expression between the mouse strains (C57BL/6J and SWR/J) with diverse phenotype provides the possibility to find associations between transcriptional and behavioral response to the stress. We used whole-genome Illumina microarrays to analyze the effects on transcription of different aversive stimuli : restraint and/or footshocks, or after the exposure to the fear conditioning context. Overall design: The microarray experiment was performed to compare transcriptional response in the amygdala to stress between two inbred mouse strains C57BL/6J and SWR/J. The effects on gene expression 2 h after the restraint (0.5 h) stress (R) and/or exposure to 5 x 1 mA footshocks (FC) and after the exposure to the fear conditioning context (CTX)(14 days post footshocks). Individual amygdala samples were used per microarray, 5-8 biological replicates were used per experimental group. To provide appropriate balance in the whole dataset groups were equally divided between the array hybridization batches.