Gene expression profiling on mouse models of dilated cardiomyopathy

Cardiomyopathies are heart muscle disorders characterised by chamber dilation often accompanied by wall thinning, severe systolic and diastolic dysfunction and frequently heart failure. Although several genes were found to be differentially expressed the cellular and molecular basis of the disease still remains poorly understood. We performed expression profiling on cardiac samples from six different mouse disease models: muscle LIM protein- (MLP), ErbB2-, ErbB4- and plakoglobin-deficient mice, doxorubicin treated mice and doxorubicin treated ErbB4 deficient mice. We aimed at the identification of general cardiomyopathy expression patterns as well as mouse model specific ones. Keywords: expression profiling, mouse models for cardiomyopathy For each mouse model investigated RNA of 4-8 individuals was pooled and targets were hybridised in four technical replicates on agilent cDNA microarrays. In a two color approach two dye swaps were performed with the cardiomyopathy samples and their wildtype/healty controls.