Gene expression profiling of mouse sclera during post-natal development. Mus musculus

Although there have been studies conducted on cornea and retina growth and development, postnatal gene expression studies on sclera growth during postnatal growth has not been well characterised. Given that the mouse genome has 85% homology to the human genome and has been completely sequenced, mouse model for the study of ocular growth has advantages over other animal models. Thus, we aimed to study the biology and genetics behind sclera growth during post-natal development in Balb/cJ mice as a means to understand genetic changes that cause scleral growth and development during post-natal eye development The purpose of this study was to identify the genes underlying the development of mouse sclera post-natal growth of the posterior chamber of the eye using microarray Overall design: Total RNA was isolated from single cryogenically ground mouse sclera (n=30, 6 samples each from week 1-, 2-, 3-, 6-and 8-old mice), reverse-transcribed and hybridized onto a Affymetrix mouse gene 1.0 ST array.We sought to use microarray to determine the gene expression profiles of mouse sclera from different age groups and identify the developmental genes that are involved in postnatal ocular growth.