Gene expression profiles of the diabetic glomerular endothelial cell

The objective of this study is to create an encyclopedia of all genes expressed in the glomerular endothelial cell under normal and diabetic conditions. We utilized Tie2-GFP transgenic mice to mark cells of the glomerular endothelium. To induce diabetic nephropathy (DB), a genetic model of DB, BKS.Cg-m +/+ Leprdb/J from Jax laboratories was used. We utilized fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS) to isolate glomerular endothelial cells from normal and diabetic mice. The RNAs from these samples were isolated and utilized to hybridize to microarrays, which offers a powerful, efficient and effective method for the creation of a gene expression atlas. Microarrays were used to identify the transciptional differences that occur in the glomular endothelium of a diabetic mouse. Diabetic and control mice carrying the Tie2-GFP transgenic were utilized to isolate the endothelial cells from the adult glomerulus. The endothelial cells were isolated from the glomerulus using FACS. RNA was isolated and the gene expression profiles were determined by microarrays.