Effect of cardiac specific KO of p38 MAPKα on gene expression profile of the heart. Mus musculus

The gene expression profile of cardiomyocyte specific KO hearts was compared to equally treated control hearts after 48 hours of Angiotensin II-treatment via osmotic mini pumps. KO hearts develop during this treatment a dilative cardiomyopathy. Overall design: Gene expression of mouse hearts of conditional p38 KO mice. Mice express tamoxifen inducible cre recombinase mercremer under control of α-MHC promotor and a p38 MAPKα gene, which has loxPside-flanked exons 2 and 3. At age of 6 weeks mice were treated with 500µg hydroxytamoxifen (OH-Tx) per day for 10 days to induce the specific KO of p38 MAPKα in cardiomyocytes. Control mice express the floxed p38MAPKα gene and were treated with OH-Tx equally. For RNA isolation four hearts of control and KO mice were harvested from 3 month old male mice after 48 hours treatment with Angiotensin II (AngII) (1.5mg/kg/d). RNA was isolated from heart apex.