Hlxb9 regulated genes in pancreatic beta cells

Hlxb9 is a differentiation factor important for neuronal, and pancreatic beta cell differentiation. It is a transcription factor that represses transcription. It's target genes are unknown. The mouse pancreatic beta cell line MIN6 was used to assess the expression of genes de-repressed upon Hlxb9 knockdown. Several independent transfections of MIN6 cells were performed with scrambled negative control siRNA (Qiagen) or with mouse Hlxb9 siRNA (Dharmacon). The cells were processed for RNA isolation and whole cell protein extracts, 72 hours post-transfection. The level of Hlxb9 knockdown was assessed by western blot analysis. RNA preps from those samples that showed more than 75% knockdown were used for microarray analysis.