Gene expression profiles of islets of Langerhans isolated from 7 weeks wt and Wnt4 conditional knock outs.

To check the role of Wnt4 in murine β cells function, we inactivated Wnt4 in β cells from 4-5 weeks using tamoxifen. After 2 weeks tamoxifen treatment, we collected islets from control and mutant mice. We found that Wnt4 knock out islets show significant reduction of oxidation-reduction processes, cysteine and methionine metabolism, fatty acid beta-oxidation and fatty acid biosynthesis, as well as transport mechanisms. On the contrary, ribosome related genes, as well as oxidative stress and apoptosis genes were up-regulated. To inactivate Wnt4 in β cells, Wnt4 fl/fl mice (Wnt4tm1Svo/tm1Svo) were crossed with Pdx1CreER (Tg(Ifp1-cre/Esr1)35.10Dam) mice to generate Pdx1CreER;Wnt4 fl/fl (Wnt4 βKO) and Wnt4 fl/fl littermates, which were used as controls. 3 control and 4 Wnt4βKO mice were used for the analysis . 4-5 week-old control and Wnt4βKO mice were injected with 200 mL Tamoxifen solution (50mg/mL) twice every other day by gavage. These mice were euthanized at 7 weeks islet collection.