Gene Expression Profile From 15 day Embryonic Mouse Eyes

Absence of Ocular albinism type 1 (Oa1) gene is associated with abnormal pigmentation and misrouting of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons at the optic chiasm of the brain. Expression of the Oa1 gene is tightly correlated with development of RGCs. In mice the Oa1 gene is expressed at embryonic day (E) 10.5. Soon afterwards the RGCs appear and at E15.5 majority of their axons pass through the optic chiasm. So comparison of microarrays hybridized with mRNAs from E15.5 Ocular albino (Oa1-/-) and Wild Type (WT) mice eyes will help us identify candidate genes critical for Ocular albinism. We used microarray analysis to study the differential expression of genes between E15.5 eyes from Wild type and Oa1-/- mice. Six pregnant females, three Oa1-/- and three WT, were sacrificed at day 15.5 days post coitum. Eyes from six embryos from each pregnant mouse were isolated and treated as one biological sample. After enucleation, the anterior segments were dissected out. RNA was extracted from the posterior eye segments of each of 3 Oa1-/- (T1, T2, T3) and 3 WT (C1, C2, C3) sample and hybridized to Affymetrix microarrays.