Bidirectional manipulation of SF-1 (NR5A1) in NCI-H295R cells

SF-1 (NR5A1) was overexpressed (Over) or knocked down with shRNA (shRNA) in NCI-H295R human adrenocortical tumor cells and differential global gene expression analysed 48 hours later using Affymetrix GeneChip Human Gene 1.0ST arrays. Over: 5 million cells were transfected (Amaxa Nucleofection) with 10 ug of a pIRES2-AcGPF1-Nuc construct co-expressing SF-1 cDNA and GFP. For experimental control, a mutagenized pIRES2 construct, bearing the G35E mutation in SF-1 that impairs its transactivation function in vivo and in vitro was used. shRNA: 5 million cells were transfected (Amaxa Nucleofection) with 10 ug of the SureSilencing shRNA Plasmid for Human NR5A1 with GFP marker kit (SABioscience). For experimental control, mismatch constructs provided in the kit were used. In both experiments (Over and shRNA), cells were harvested, prepared, and submitted to fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) in a MoFlo XDP sorter 48 hours after transfection. Viable GFP-expressing cells were pooled and resuspended in TRIzol reagent for RNA extraction. Total RNA was extracted, and RNA quality control performed using a 2100 Bioanalyzer.

15