Detection of differences in gene expression in the noradrenergic nuclei in the brain

The goal of this study was to compare the transcriptome of neurons from the locus coeruleus (LC) from wild type and mice that are conditional KO to argininosuccinatelyase (ASL) in the LC. Using an optimized data analysis, we were able to detect difference in the transcription of key enzymes in the synthesis of catecholamine, along with changes in the catecholamine synthesis pathway. Approximately 7% of the transcripts showed differential expression between the WT and ASL-LC cKO mice. The altered expression of the releant genes was confirmed with qRT–PCR. Our study represents the detailed analysis of the LC that revealed novel metabolic regulation on this region. Overall design: 100 cells from each mouse were collected using laser micro dissection from the LC of WT and ASL-LC cKO mice