Project description:Eye photoreceptor membrane discs in outer rod segments are highly enriched in the visual pigment rhodopsin and the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenote (DHA). The eye acquires DHA from blood, but transporters for DHA uptake across the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) or retinal pigment epithelium have not been identified. Mfsd2a is a newly described sodium-dependent lysophosphatidylcholine symporter expressed at the BRB. Microarrays were used to determine difference in gene expression between wild-type and Mfsd2a KO eye cups. RNA was extracted from eye cups from postnatal day 13 wild-type and Mfsd2a KO mice. Equal amounts of RNA from 6 wild-type eye cups were pooled for the wild-type sample, or 6 Mfsd2a KO eye cups were pooled for the Mfsd2a KO sample. Microarray profiling was done on pooled samples with a RIN cut-off of 7.0 using Mouse 430 2.0 arrays (Affymetrix).
Project description:Eye photoreceptor membrane discs in outer rod segments are highly enriched in the visual pigment rhodopsin and the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenote (DHA). The eye acquires DHA from blood, but transporters for DHA uptake across the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) or retinal pigment epithelium have not been identified. Mfsd2a is a newly described sodium-dependent lysophosphatidylcholine symporter expressed at the BRB. Microarrays were used to determine difference in gene expression between wild-type and Mfsd2a KO eye cups.
Project description:We report RNA-Seq experiments of whole eye tissues from A/J, BALB/c, and C57BL/6 background mice. Examine ocular tissue from 3 different background mice that display varying rates of retinal degeneration.
Project description:The initial aim of this work was to understand the pathophysiology of Enhanced S-cone Syndrome (ESCS) that leads to retinal degeneration. Although ESCS was identified in humans decades ago and since then the causative genes have been elucidated, our understanding of the accompanying retinal degeneration is still poorly understood. Knockout of the Nrl transcription factor in mice produces a retina overpopulated with S-cone like photoreceptors along with absence of rod photoreceptors and recapitulates many of the phenotypic features seen in human ESCS patients. We wanted to study this murine model through a combinatorial genetic and structural approach to improve understanding of the disease process that leads to photoreceptor degeneration and blindness, potentially guiding future therapies. By using RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) to examine mature wild type and Nrl-/- ocular tissues, we were able to determine global changes in their transcriptomes. The massively parallel RNA-sequencing experiment revealed new insight into the transcriptional mis-regulation in the ESCS murine model and revealed a change in gene expression in putative proteins involved in photoreceptor phagocytosis. Key photoreceptor ligands necessary for phagocyotsis, Tub and Tulp1, were down-regulated in the Nrl-/- retina. Down regulation of key retinoid metabolic genes, coupled with down-regulation of Tub and Tulp1, suggested a potential mechanism involving defective phagocytosis underlies the photoreceptor degeneration seen in ESCS. We report RNA-Seq experiments of whole eye and retinal tissues from wild type and Nrl transcription factor knockout mice on the C57BL/6 background. Examine two different ocular tissues in two mouse models of varying photoreceptor populations
Project description:MicroRNA expression in the mouse eye.MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key regulators of biological processes. To define miRNA function in the eye, it is essential to determine a high-resolution profile of their spatial and temporal distribution. In this report, we present the first comprehensive survey of miRNA expression in ocular tissues, using both microarray and RNA in situ hybridization (ISH) procedures. We initially determined the expression profiles of miRNAs in the retina, lens, cornea and retinal pigment epithelium of the adult mouse eye by microarray. Each tissue exhibited notably distinct miRNA enrichment patterns and cluster analysis identified groups of miRNAs that showed predominant expression in specific ocular tissues or combinations of them. Next, we performed RNA ISH for over 220 miRNAs, including those showing the highest expression levels by microarray, and generated a high-resolution expression atlas of miRNAs in the developing and adult wild-type mouse eye, which is accessible in the form of a publicly available web database. We found that 122 miRNAs displayed restricted expression domains in the eye at different developmental stages, with the majority of them expressed in one or more cell layers of the neural retina . This analysis revealed miRNAs with differential expression in ocular tissues and provided a detailed atlas of their tissue-specific distribution during development of the murine eye. The combination of the two approaches offers a valuable resource to decipher the contributions of specific miRNAs and miRNA clusters to the development of distinct ocular structures. microRNA profiling of ocular tissues from mouse. In particular we analysed the cornea, lens, Retina Pigment Epithelium (RPE) and retina and compared them against RNA extracted from the entire eye. The purpose of this experiment was to understand which microRNAs are present nd/or show differential expression in the various structures of the eye (cornea, lens, RPE, retina). The samples numbered 1 & 2 (i.e. CORNEA1, CORNEA2 etc ) are biological replicates, prepared from tissues dissecyed from different groups of wild-type animals. RNA extracted from the entire eye (EYE) served as the unique reference sample. For each tissue to be analysed we performed the following hybridizations: - 2 slides for lens (LENS1, LENS2) vs entire eye (EYE) - 2 slides for RPE (RPE1, RPE2) vs entire eye (EYE) - 2 slides for retina (RETINA1, RETINA2) vs entire eye (EYE) - 2 slides for cornea (CORNEA1, CORNEA2) vs entire eye (EYE) - 1 slide for entire eye (EYE) vs entire eye (EYE)
Project description:Rod-derived Cone Viability Factor (RdCVF, alias nxnl1) is a retina-specific protein identified for its therapeutic potential in supporting cone survival during retinal degeneration. A nxnl1 knockout mouse model was created and the transcriptome used to demonstrate that the retina is compromised by the absence of nxnl1. Experiment Overall Design: In total 9 samples were analyzed, they represent three different genotypes (wt/wt, ko/wt, ko/ko) that were tested in triplicate each.