Transcriptional analysis of tendons from mice with a targeted deletion of scleraxis

We report RNA sequencing data from the plantaris tendons of adult male mice in the C57Bl/6 background that either have the scleraxis gene (Scx+) or mice in which scleraxis has been deleted using CreERT2 driven from the Rosa26 locus (Scx-). Mice in which scleraxis was deleted were created by crossing scleraxis-floxed mice with Rosa26-CreERT2 mice. Rosa26-CreERT2 mice that did not have a floxed scleraxis allele served as controls. Mice were treated with tamoxifen for 5 days to induce recombination at the scleraxis locus, and then subjected to a synergist ablation procedure in which the Achilles tendon is removed, resulting in compensatory growth of the plantaris tendon. Mice were analyzed either 7 or 14 days after synergist ablation. Control mice that did not undergo tamoxifen treatment or synergist ablation were also studied (NOC). Differential expression of mRNAs were evaluated from the plantaris tendons of Scx+ and Scx- mice subjected to a growth stimulus for either 7 or 14 days, along with control mice that did not undergo a growth stimulus.