Conditional deletion of HIF-2α in mouse nucleus pulposus reduces fibrosis and provides mild and transient protection from age-dependent structural changes in intervertebral disc

Hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs) are critical to the development and homeostasis of the intervertebral disc. While HIF-2α, one of the main HIF-α isoforms is expressed in nucleus pulposus (NP) cells, its functions remain unknown. We used microarrays to explore the transcriptomics of differentially expressed genes between control and HIF-2α cKO NP cells in 6M and 14M mice. NP tissue were dissected from discs from control (n=4) and HIF-2α cKO mice (n=4). Mice were aged until they became 6-months-old or 14-months-old. RNA extraction was prefomed and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.