Hepatic gene expression in wild type and SHPKO mice fed chow or western diet. Mus musculus

SHP (small heterodimer partner; NR0B2) belongs to the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily, which regulates numerous developmental and metabolic cellular functions. To study physiological function of SHP, we generated congenic SHP-/- mice on C57Bl/6 background. When the congenic SHP-/- mice were challenged with a western diet (harlan, TD.88137) for 22 weeks, they were resistant to diet induced obesity and hepatic steatosis compared to WT controls. However, their hepatic insulin sensitivity was compromised when assessed with phospho-Akt levels after insulin injection. Therefore, we investigated hepatic gene expression using illumina beadchip array to explore mechanisms underneath the unique liver physiology in SHP-/- mice. Overall design: Livers were collected from C57Bl/6 wild type and C57Bl/6 SHP-/- mice fed chow or western diet. The 1 microgram of total RNA obtained from individual mouse (n=4 per group) and subjected to illumina beadchip gene expression profiling.