Identification of the transcriptional biomarkers set linked to pathological remodelling of the eye tissues in various HD mouse models.

Our study aims to identify transcriptional deregulation of the oculomotor transcriptome in various HD mouse models using an Affymetrix array analysis This study identified transciptome deregulation in the eye tissue of two HD mouse models, namely R6/1 and R6/2. All HD mouse lines were purchased from Jackson Laboratories (US). The R6/2, R6/1 mouse lines were bred and genotyped. The cumulative CAG counts for all time-points were as follow: R6/2 (162 ± 2.8 SD); R6/1 (131 ± 3.1 SD; HdhQ150 homozygote (165 ± 1.7 SD). All experimental procedures were conducted under a project license from the Home Office, UK and approved by the Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body of Imperial College London. Experimental groups included: the R6/2 mouse model at 9 and weeks of age and their C57BL/6J littermates; the R6/1 mouse model at 6 months of age and their C57BL/6J littermates. Tissues were harvested at specific time points, snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80OC for further analysis.