Cell Type-specific Gene Expression Profiling in the Mouse Liver

Liver repopulation after injury is a crucial feature of mammals which prevents immediate organ failure and death after exposure of environmental toxins. A deeper understanding of the changes in gene expression that occur during repopulation could help identify therapeutic targets to promote the restoration of liver function in the setting of injuries. Nonetheless, methods to isolate specifically the repopulating hepatocytes are inhibited by a lack of cell markers, limited cell numbers, and the fragility of these cells. The development of translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP) technology in conjunction with the Fah(−/−) mouse model to recapitulate repopulation in the setting of liver injury allows gene expression profiling of the repopulating hepatocytes. With TRAP, cell type-specific translating mRNA is rapidly and efficiently isolated. We developed a method that utilizes TRAP with affinity-based isolation of translating mRNA from hepatocytes that selectively express the green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged ribosomal protein (RP), GFP:RPL10A. TRAP circumvents the long time period required for fluorescence-activated cell sorting that could change the gene expression profile. Furthermore, since only the repopulating hepatocytes express the GFP:RPL10A fusion protein, the isolated mRNA is devoid of contamination from the surrounding injured hepatocytes and other cell types in the liver. The affinity-purified mRNA is of high quality and allows downstream PCR- or high-throughput sequencing-based analysis of gene expression.