Transcriptional ontogeny of the developing liver

We characterized gene expression changes in the developing mouse liver at gestational days (GD) 11.5, 12.5, 13.5, 14.5, 16.5, and 19.5 and in the neonate (postnatal day (PND) 7 and 30) using full-genome microarrays and compared these changes to that in the adult liver. The fetal liver, and to a lesser extent the neonatal liver, exhibited dramatic differences in gene expression compared to adults. Canonical pathway analysis of the fetal liver signature demonstrated increases in functions important in cell replication and DNA fidelity whereas most metabolic pathways of intermediary metabolism were suppressed. Comparison of the dataset to a number of previously published datasets revealed 1) a striking similarity between the fetal liver and that of the pancreas in both mice and humans, 2) a nucleated erythrocyte signature in the fetus and 3) suppression of most xenobiotic metabolism genes throughout development, except a number of transporters associated with expression in hematopoietic cells.

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Lee JS, Ward WO, Knapp G, Ren H, Vallanat B, Abbott B, Ho K, Karp SJ, Corton JC