Microarray profiling of total testicular microRNAs in mouse

Gene expression in mammalian testis undergoing spermatogenesis is under strict post transcriptional regulation and microRNAs are known to play a role in this regulation. Considering the time window of first wave of spermatogenesis, we did a microarray profiling of total testicular microRNAs in mouse and found several significant patterns of variable expression of these molecules during the different stages analyzed here. Mouse testis tissue were taken at three stages, 8 days, 16 days and 24 days, during first wave of spermatogenesis for RNA extraction and hybridization on Locked Nucleic Acid(LNA) technology based Exiqon microarray platform. We included two biological replicates per age group and comparisons were done between the samples with respect to their hybridization to the 'reference' sample which had all the six samples pooled together.