Cryptorchidism in the orl rat is associated with muscle patterning defects in the fetal gubernaculum and altered hormonal signaling

This study was designed to provide additional insight into testicular hormone production and responsiveness in the orl strain and complement ongoing efforts to characterize the genetic basis of cryptorchidism in this isolated rat colony. Gubernacula were harvested from Long Evans and ORL rat embryos at gestational day 17 and 19. RNA was purified from litter-based organ pools. 26 RNA samples were processed and hybridized to GeneChips. Please note that a mix-up of the samples gubernaculum-GD19-a and -b appears to have occurred as data from these samples clustered with the opposite strain than expected in hierarchical clustering analysis. Thus the strain information was annotated as 'unknown'.