Gene expression profile in the small Maf-deficient livers.. Mus musculus

To elucidate the functional roles of sMafs in the adult liver, we conditionally targeted the sMaf genes using a transgenic complementation rescue approach. MafF-/-::MafG-/-::MafK-/- (F0G0K0) mice are embryonic lethal but can be rescued by complementation of transgenic MafG expression under the regulation of the MafG regulatory domain (MGRD). Therefore, we rescued F0G0K0 mice using a MGRD transgenic mouse line with a MafG gene flanked with loxP (fMafG) sequences so that the MafG gene could be deleted by Cre-mediated recombination. The Albumin(Alb)-Cre transgenic mice were used to delete fMafG gene specifically in the liver. The genotype used are MafF-/-::MafG-/-::MafK-/-::MGRD-fMafG::Alb-Cre (liver-specific sMaf CKO) and MafF-/-::MafG+/-::MafK-/-::MGRD-fMafG::Alb-Cre (control). Overall design: The microarray analyses were performed using three independent RNA samples from livers of liver-specific sMaf CKO and control mice at 5 weeks of age.