Gene expression profile of juvenile R6/1 and N171-82Q brains

Transcriptional dysregulation in Huntington’s disease (HD) is an early event that affects the expression of genes involved in survival and neuronal functions throughout the progression of the pathology. In the last years, extensive research has focused on epigenetic and chromatin-modifying factors as a causative explanation for such dysregulation, offering attractive targets for pharmacological therapies. In this work we examined the gene expression profiles in cortex, striatum, hippocampus and cerebellum of juvenile R6/1 and N171-82Q mice, two models of fast progressive HD, to retrieve the early transcriptional signatures associated with this pathology.These profiles showed significant coincidences with the transcriptional changes in the conditional knockout for the lysine acetyltransferase CBP in postmitotic forebrain neurons. Prefrontal cortices, striata, hippocampi and cerebella were dissected from mutant mice alongside with wild-type littermates. Total RNA was extracted and hybridized to Affymetrix MoGene 1.0 ST arrays. One array consisted on a pool of 3-4 RNA samples and three arrays were used per condition (genotype-tissue-age).