Investigating the role of alpha-catenin-cholesterol biosynthesis axis during islet development
The major function of alpha-catenin (encoded by Ctnna1) is linking the cadherin-catenin complex to the actin cytoskeleton, thereby regulating cell adhesion, Mechanotransduction, and tissue integrity. Alpha-catenin is a critical component of adherens junctions and plays essential roles in maintaining cellular architecture, transducing mechanical signals, and preserving tissue homeostasis. In this project, we analyze how Ctnna1 regulates islet function and analyze the gene expression profiling related to islet function, structure, and adhesion. We selectively ablate alpha-catenin (Ctnna1) in endocrine cells of murine pancreas. We isolated islets and performed mRNA profiles from 8-week-old wild type (WT) and Ngn3-Cre; Ctnna1 flox/flox (KO) mice (N=6). We mapped about 70 million sequence reads per mouse sample. Our results showed that 115 genes were upregulated and 292 were downregulated by alpha-catenin ablation. Overall design: Total RNA was extracted from pancreatic islets isolated from 8 weeks old mice of Ngn3-Cre; Ctnna1flox/flox and Wild-type controls. There were six animals for each group.