Affect of Socs2 loss-of-function on liver regeneration. Mus musculus

SOCS2 Ensures Metabolic Function and Mass Restoration During Liver Regeneration - SOCS2 plays distinct and contrasting roles during liver regeneration. Early after injury, SOCS2 expression increases and limits the rate of regeneration, preserving metabolic activity. Surprisingly, at later times, the role of SOCS2 reverses to promote liver regeneration by stimulating GH release from the pituitary via effects on serum levels of insulin-like growth factor 1. Loss of SOCS2 promotes GH signaling by increasing growth hormone receptor levels and driving phosphorylation of proteins in the GH pathway, establishing a state of hyper-responsiveness to GH. These findings suggest a single protein can play contrasting roles at different times after liver injury and modulation of GH signaling achieves an optimal rate of liver regeneration to balance metabolic and restorative needs. To further understand the mechanism by which SOCS2 increases early liver regeneration, we performed microarray analysis of Socs2-null mice wildtype mice at 24 and 36 hours after hepatectomy. Overall design: C57BL/6 mice where used as wildtype controls. Socs2-null animals were maintained on a C57BL/6 background. Both wildtype and Socs2-null adult mice were subjected to 2/3 hepatectomy and liver tissue isolated at 24 hours and 36 hours post hepatectomy. Time zero was without hepatectomy in age-matched mice for each genotype. Total RNA isolated from collected liver tissues was pooled for three animals at each time point and two biological replicates (3 pooled liver RNAs each) were labeled for array analysis. This results in a total of 12 microarrays.