Sex-related differences in gene expression in salivary glands of BALB/c mice.
Sex-related differences exist in the structure and function of the major glands in a variety of species. Moreover, many of these variations appear to be unique to each tissue. We hypothesized that this sexual dimorphism is due, at least in part, to gland-specific differences in gene expression between males and females. Glands were collected from male and female BALB/c mice (n = 5/sex/experiment), and total RNA was isolated. Samples were analyzed for differentially expressed mRNAs with CodeLink microarrays, and data were evaluated by GeneSifter. Our results demonstrate that significant (P < 0.05) sex-related differences exist in the expression of numerous genes in the major salivary glands, and many of these differences were tissue-specific. These findings support our hypothesis that sex-related differences in the salivary glands are due, at least in part, to tissue-specific variations in gene expression.
Treister
N S
NS
Department of Oral Medicine, Infection, and Immunity, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA 02114, USA. ntreister@partners.org
Richards
S M
SM
Lombardi
M J
MJ
Rowley
P
P
Jensen
R V
RV
Sullivan
D A
DA
D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D012469:Salivary Glands / Q000378:metabolism*; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012727:Sex Characteristics
D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides