Differentiating Mouse Colon and Rectum: Transcriptional Differences and Environmental Exposure

We have demonstrated that the colon and rectum are transcriptionally distinct in mice and that the colon can be differentiated from rectum based on microarray profiles. This transition occurs over the first weeks of life, indicating environmental exposure is an important mediator. Colon and rectum RNA from E18 to 8 week old C57BL/6J mice along with 8 week old gnotobiotic C57BL/6J mice were evaluated with microarray technology. For each array analysis a pool of RNA(2-8) from individual colons or rectums were co-hybridized with a reference pool of 4 RNA samples from mouse small intestine, rectum and colon (SIRC)) to Agilent Mouse Whole Genome 4x44k microarrays and scanned on an Agilent microarray scanner. Files were extracted using Agilent Feature Extraction version 9.5.

本研究证实，小鼠的结肠与直肠在转录水平上存在显著差异，且可通过微阵列（microarray）表达谱对二者进行区分。这种转录特征的差异在小鼠出生后的最初几周内逐渐形成，提示环境暴露是调控该过程的重要介导因素。本研究采用微阵列技术，对胚胎18天（E18）至8周龄的C57BL/6J小鼠以及8周龄悉生（gnotobiotic）C57BL/6J小鼠的结肠与直肠RNA进行了检测分析。每一次阵列分析均将2~8份来自单个结肠或直肠的RNA混合样本，与取自小鼠小肠、直肠及结肠的4份RNA组成的参考池（SIRC）共同杂交于安捷伦（Agilent）小鼠全基因组4×44k微阵列芯片，并通过安捷伦微阵列扫描仪进行扫描。芯片数据文件通过安捷伦Feature Extraction软件9.5版本完成提取。