T7-SAGE transcriptome of cleft versus end bud epithelial cells of embryonic mouse salivary glands

Mus musculus embryonic submandibular salivary glands from embryonic day 12.5 embryos were laser microdissected to isolate epithelial cells from regions adjacent to forming clefts or from the peripheral end bud region. The isolated region-specific samples were then subjected to T7-SAGE transcriptome analysis. Toluidine blue-stained cryostat sections of embryonic day 12.5 submandibular salivary glands were used for laser microdissection using an LMD system (Leica) with a pulsed UV laser on an upright automated microscope. A total of approximately 500 cells from a region immediately adjacent to a forming cleft or from a peripheral end bud region were excised by the laser and transferred to caps of 0.5 ml PCR tubes. SAGE libraries were constructed from the microdissected cleft and bud epithelia cells. SAGE tags were identified using the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) tag map set for UniGene.