Gene expression profiles of KK.Cg-Ay/J (KKAy) mice and KK-a/a (KKa) mice

The differential gene expression in hepatocytes was compared between the KK.Cg-Ay/J mice and the KK-a/a mice, corresponding to the Diabetic strain and the control. The microarrays were used to screen the candidates supporting to the essential pathogenesis of Type-2 Diabetes in the pre-developing, early and developing stages, corresponding to the 6 weeks, 16 weeks and 42 weeks. To determine the significant biological processes and pathways contributing to development of Diabetic phenotypes in the KKAy mouse, we identified the candidates with the differential gene expression of the livers by comparison of the KKAy and KKa mice. These genes have relationship linkage to construct the networks for mechanistic explanation of the disease. The comparison of gene expression profiles between the KKa mice and the KKAy mice, which are described as the Diabetic model with obesity. There were four KKAy mice and four KKa mice in each investigating stage and we totally had three stages for 6, 16 and 42 weeks old for the experiment. Samples from the liver tissues of the four grouped mice were mixed together with equal weight, with two replicates for microarray analysis.