mRNA expression data from keratinocytes with disorganized lipid raft structures (by cholesterol depletion by methyl-beta-cyclodextrin)

Lipid rafts are cholesterol-rich cell signaling platforms and their physiological role can be explored by cholesterol depletion. To dress a global picture of transcriptional changes ongoing after lipid raft disruption, we performed whole-genome expression profiling in epidermal keratinocytes, a cell type which synthesizes its cholesterol in situ. We used microarrays to identify transcriptional changes in gene expression of cholesterol-depleted keratinocytes. Cholesterol depletion by methyl-beta-cyclodextrin disrupts the organization of lipid rafts, which are cholesterol- and sphingolipid-rich membrane microdomains. Transcript levels were measured in autocrine confluent cultures of normal human epidermal keratinocytes were either left untreated (Ctrl), cholesterol-depleted for 1h with 7.5mM methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MBCD), or mock cholesterol-depleted for 1h with 7.5mM cholesterol-charged methyl-beta-cyclodextrin complexes (MBCD/chol) (Mock cholesterol depletion is a suppementary negative control as this treatment does not extract cholesterol from cell membranes). Samples are analysed either immediately after the treatment (R0h) or after recovery times of 1h (R1h) respectively 8h (R8h). in total 9 samples are analysed and no replicates are performed.