Hepatic gene expression in male fetuses from maternal nutrient restriction in mice

The aim of this study was to identify fetal adaptations to gene expression in our mouse model of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). Starting at E6.5, pregnant CD-1 mice received either control (ad libitum) or 70% of ad libitum food (maternal nutrient restriction [MNR]). At E18.5, fetal right liver lobes were collected from 2 pups/litter in litters with 11-15 pups. Frozen liver was homogenized for RNA isolations. Isolated RNA was sequenced on a HiSeq2500 with an average read depth of 23M reads and a range of 17-31M reads per sample. Reads were aligned to the mm9 transcriptome with Bowtie2. Normalization and differential expression was done with DESeq2, ALDex2 and EdgeR, and genes were considered in the study if they were consistent in 2 or more tools (FDR <0.1). 10 control and 10 MNR samples were analyzed with (2 pups/ litter)