Gene expression profiling of Foxi3 null embryonic back skin epithelium

Foxi3 is a transcription factor expressed in the hair follicle epithelium during development and postnatally. In this study we used a microarray analysis to indentify differentially expressed genes in Foxi3 null epithelium compared to Foxi3 wt epithelium. We used E15.5 stage as the earliest time point when the Foxi3 null hair phenotype bacame obvious, to find out the most early consequences of Foxi3 ablation. Dispase-dissociated back skin epithelia of 4 Foxi3 total null and 4 wild-type E15.5 mouse embryos, littermates from 4 litters of C57/Bl6 background, were used for the analysis. Array and data analysis were performed in the Biomedicum Functional Genomics Unit (University of Helsinki, Finland).