Expression comparison between wild-type and transgenic mouse lenses. Mus musculus

The vertebrate ocular lens consists of two basic cell types: the lens fibers, highly specialized cells that make up the bulk of the lens and are the basis for its unique optical characteristics, and the epithelial cells that cover the anterior hemisphere and acts as a stem cell population for progenitors of new fibers. The forkhead transcription factor FoxE3 is essential for maintenance, proliferation and survival of the epithelial cells, and silencing of the FoxE3 gene coincides with the cell cycle arrest that marks initiation of fiber cell differentiation. Here we have used transgenic ectopic expression of murine Foxe3 in fiber cells to investigate the consequences of persistent Foxe3 expression during fiber differentiation. Microarray transcript profiling showed that ectopic Foxe3 caused a general increase in mRNAs which are normally enriched in epithelial cells, consistent with an epithelialization of the transgenic fibers. Keywords: Genetic modification Overall design: Whole lenses from P2 animals were dissected and genotyped. 12 lenses from each genotype were used for RNA extraction and hybridization to Affymetrix arrays. Total of 3 replicates/genotype.