Dysregulated gene expression in Mef2a knockout mice subjected to cardiotoxin-induced muscle injury. Mus musculus

We identified genes expressed in mouse skeletal muscle, during the process of muscle regeneration after injury, which are dysregulated in the absence of Mef2a expression. MEF2A is a member of the evolutionarily conserved MEF2 transcription factor family which has known roles in cardiac muscle development and function, but is not well studied in skeletal muscle. We performed a comparison of gene expression profiles in wild type and MEF2A knockout tibialis anterior muscle, seven days post-injury with cardiotoxin. The results indicated that a variety of genes expressed during muscle regeneration, predominantly microRNAs in the Gtl2-Dio3 locus, are dysregulated by the loss of MEF2A expression. Overall design: Skeletal muscle RNA used in the present study included the following two sample groups: (WT) pooled total RNA from tibialis anterior muscle taken from 5 wild type mice at seven days post-injury with 10uM cardiotoxin; (KO) pooled total RNA from tibialis anterior muscle taken from 5 Mef2a knockout mice at seven days post-injury with 10uM cardiotoxin. All mice were between 2-4 months of age. Both male and female mice were used.