Changes in skeletal muscle gene expression following castration

The objective of this study was to identify novel genes whose expression is sensitive to androgen deprivation. We used microarrays to detail the change in gene expression within the tibialis anterior muscle following castration surgery. Male, C57Bl/6 mice aged 11 weeks were subjected to a sham or castration surgery. At 18 weeks of age, they were fasted beginning at 1800 hr. The next morning (~0800 hr), mice were randomized to remain fasted or were allowed to refeed for 30 minutes. Following the refeeding, all mice were fasted for an additional 4 hr until sacrifice. At sacrifice, all mice were anesthetized with isoflurane, and the tibialis anterior muscle was extracted and flash frozen in liquid nitrogen