Comparison of mouse and human retinal pigment epithelium gene expression profiles reveals interspecies similarities and differences

To determine mouse retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) specific gene expression, we compared the gene expression profile of the RPE to the gene expression of its adjacent layers: the choroid (CH) and photoreceptors (PR). We collected the tissues using the meticulous laser dissection microscopy. Next, we performed RNA isolation, amplification, labeling and hybridization against 44k Agilent microarrays. Compared RPE gene expression with CH gene expression, and with PR gene expression We performed the microarrays against a common reference sample, namely mouse RPE/choroid RNA. We performed 3 replicates of every tissue: CH, RPE and PR.