Profile of Gene Expression in the Kidneys of Mice with the insrr Gene Knockout

Abstract

The insulin receptor-related receptor (IRR) is a receptor tyrosine kinase and a close homologue of the insulin receptor and the insulin-like growth factor receptor; however, peptide and protein ligands for this receptor have not been identified. IRR is encoded by the insrr gene and is found in some cell populations of kidneys, stomach, pancreas, as well as in some sympathetic and cholinergic neurons. In the present study, a comparative analysis of the transcriptomes of kidneys from wild-type mice and IRR-knockout mice has been performed by the method of deep sequencing and by the analysis of gene expression on microarrays and in real-time PCR. A significant change (a more than 1.5fold increase in gene expression in knockout animals) was found for the transcripts of two genes: hsd3b2 and igf2. The results suggest that the line of IRR-knockout mice can find application as an animal model in studies of the role of these genes in the kidney.