Depolarization induced gene from primary cortical neuron

Activation of neurons is one of the fundamental events for the functioning of nervous system. Neuronal activation relays information to next neurons. On the other hand, the activated neurons themselves are also influenced by neuronal activation. Depending on the type and condition of neuronal activation, these activated neurons change their gene expressions, thereby being able to process information more or less efficiently. We applied the microarray technology to identify hither-to-uncharacterized as activity-dependent genes. Especially, we screened the transcription factors, because early changes in the transcription factors should result in alterations of gene expression profiles and subsequent neuronal properties. Keywords: duplicated control, duplicated treatment Rat primary cortical neurons with or without KCl treatment were selected for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. To identify the genes whose expression was induced by depolarization, we first compared gene expression profiles in control vs. 4 hr after KCl (25 mM) treated cortical neurons using Affymetrix Genechips specified for neurobiology. All four hybridizations were analyzed for correlation accuracy between the replicates of the same treatments .Control replicates (control 1, 2) KCl-treated replicates (KCl 1, 2)