Transcriptome analysis of Brg1 deficient small intestinal epithelium in the context of normal and aberrant Wnt signalling. Mus musculus

Brg1 has been reported to act as a trans-activator for the Wnt pathway by interacting with beta-catenin. Given this interaction and the crucial role Wnt signalling plays in the intestinal homeostasis, we aimed to investigate the effect of Brg1 loss on gene expression in normal and Wnt activated small intestinal epithelium. Overall design: We used VillinCreERT2 Cre recombinase and loxP targeted allels of Brg1 and Apc to generate 4 cohorts of conditional knock-out mice: Cre-negative controls (n=4), Brg1 deficient (n=4), Apc deficient (n=3) and double Brg1-Apc deficient (n=4). All mice were induced by 4x80mg/kg daily injections of Tamoxifen. Epithelium enriched (gut scrapes) samples of small intestine (jejunum) were collected at day 4 post induction. Loss of Brg1 expression in the small intestinal epithelium at this time point was confirmed by immunohistochemistry.