A comparative analysis of reactive Müller glia gene expression after light damage and microRNA-depleted Müller glia – focus on microRNAs [Affymetrix]

In order to identify the mRNAs in adult light damaged Muller glia of the the neural retina, Müller glia from Hes-5 GFP reporter mice that were crossed with Swiss Webster mice were isolated by means of fluorescent activated cell sorting and analyzed their mRNAs using the Mouse Gene 1.0 ST microarray (Affymetrix). Differentially expressed genes were analyzed and compared to the genes found upregulated in the Dicer-cKO mouse (Wohl at el., 2017). miRNA:mRNA target tools were used to find potential miRNA targets of Muller glia miRNAs. MG from 10 light damaged and 12 undamaged retinas were FACS-purified, the RNA extracted and mRNA expression was analysed using the Mouse Gene 1.0 ST microarray (Affymetrix). Fold change of gene expression was plotted from log2 relative expression of light damaged Muller glia minus log2 relative expression from control Muller glia to dinf differetnially expressed genes after light damage.