Gene expression profile of E18.5 epidermis from WT and MafB KO mice

MafB is a member of the Maf family of bZip transcription factor and plays important roles in the developmental processes of various tissues, as well as in cell-type specific gene expression. MafB is expressed in differentiating keratinocytes in mice and is transcriptionally up-regulated upon human keratinocyte differentiation in vitro. In MafB-deficient mice, epidermal differentiation is partially impaired and the cornified layer is thinner. To gain insights into more detailed molecular mechanisms of MafB regulation of epidermal development, we performed microarray analysis of mRNAs isolated from dorsal skin epidermis of MafB-/- and wild-type mice at E18.5. Epidermis was separated from dorsal skin tissues of E18.5 mouse embryos (MafB-/- and WT) by Dispase (Life Technologies) treatment. Total RNA was isolated using Trizol reagent (Life Technologies), purified using an RNeasy mini kit (Qiagen), and subjected to microarray analysis.