Hyperthermia and p53 effects on global gene expressions

Neural tube defects (NTDs) are one of the most common human birth defects, with a prevalence of approximately 1 in 1000 live births in the United States. In animal studies, deletion of p53 and hyperthermia leads to a significant increase in embryos that exhibit exencephaly. To evaluate the effects of hyperthermia on p53-deficient mouse embryos we used microarray approach to find genes modified by deletion of p53 and hyperthermia treatment in day 8.5 mouse embryos to identify genes that may be involved in the mechanisms underlining NTDs and begin to define the developmental role of p53 in the etiology of NTDs. After day 8.5 mouse embryos from p53 heterozygous crosses were treated in either control (38C) water bath or hot (43C) water bath for 10 minutes, they were collected, genotyped, and embryos of similar genotype (+/+; +/-; -/-) and treatment were pooled. Total RNA of biological quarduplicate samples were isolated each from p53 +/+, +/-, -/- embryos. Total RNA of each sample was obtained from 3-7 embryos. Gene expression differences between the three genotypes were examined.