Transcriptome profiling of embryonic cortex E18 and primary cortical neuron cultures deficient for the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP)

The amyloid precursor protein (APP), an important player in the Alzheimer’s disease, regulates neurites formation and synaptic function by mechanisms still not fully understood. Its ability to control gene expression via its intracellular domain (AICD) was proposed to mediate several of these physiological functions. Here, we tested whether putative AICD target genes could be transcriptionally modified by the absence of APP in embryonic cortex (E18) and in primary cortical neurons during maturation after 3 or 7 days in vitro. Moreover, we aimed to identified novel APP dependent target genes that could be related to particular biological functions in the context of neuronal physiology. Primary neuronal culture from embryonic cortices were carried out using APP+/+ and APP-/- embryos at developmental stage E18. Primary neuronal cultures were kept in vitro for 3 (DIV3) or 7 (DIV7) days and subjected to RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. In addition, embryonic cortices at E18 (E18) were subjected RNA extraction and hybrization on Affymetrix microarrays. In all our experimental conditions (E18, DIV3 and DIV7), 3 biologicals replicates for each genotype (APP+/+ and APP-/-) were used.