Transcriptional profiling reveals functional links between RasGrf1 and Pttg1 in pancreatic beta cells

We used microarrays to investigate gene expression changes in the pancreas of RasGrf1 KO mice. These animals have a reduction in the number and size of the pancreatic islets which lead to lower levels of insulin and glucagon in their blood. Manually selected pancreatic islets from collagenase-P digests of WT and RasGrf1 KO mice pancreases were used for RNA extraction using the TRIZOL protocol. RNA was further purified using Qiagen Rneasy mini kit. RNA from three different animals was pooled to obtain enough RNA for each microarray hybridization