Microarray Analysis of the transcriptome of the Subfornical Organ in the rat

In these studies we have for the first time described the transcriptome of the rat SFO, and have in addition identified genes the expression of which is significantly modified by either water or food deprivation. For each condition (food deprivation, water deprivation, untreated), 25 animals were denied food for 48 hours prior to sacrifice. The Subfornical organ was removed under a dissecting microscope from a 1mm slice of brain removed from an ice cold brain matrix. SFO's from 5 animals were pooled for each sample prior to RNA extraction to give n=5.