Dissecting the Genetic Architecture of Renal Function and the biomarker Cystatin C in Aging

In this study, we utilized 95 Diversity Outbred (DO) female mice, 56 weeks of age, to perform eQTL analysis of renal biomarkers in blood and urine. We also determined the correlation between kidney biomarkers and expression levels of the genes in kidney. Female Diversity Outbred mice (n = 120; J: DO; G16; JAX stock number 009376) were obtained from the Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME) at 4 weeks of age. The mice were group housed (n = 5 mice per cage) and maintained on chow diets. At about 56 weeks of age, mice were injected intraperitoneally with a volume of sterile isotonic saline equivalent to 10 percent of their body weight and on the following day mice were fasted for 4 hours, anesthetized, and dissected to kidney samples for micro array analysis. Microarray data were available from 95 kidney samples