Description
Preparation of Synaptosomes by density gradient and compare synaptically enriched mRNA to total homogenate transcriptome Overall design: In brief, mouse brains were homogenized in 5 ml homogenization buffer (0.32 M sucrose, 1 mM EDTA pH 7.4, 1 mM dithiothreitol, phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride solution (Sigma, 93482-50ML-F), complete mini-protease inhibitor (Roche Diagnostics) for 10 sec using a polytron. The homogenate was centrifuged at 1,000g for 10 min at 4 °C yielding the nuclear fraction (Nuc) and the supernatant (Sup). The supernatant was centrifuged at 31,000g for 5 min at 4°C using a discontinuous Percoll gradient. The layer between 3% and 10% of Percoll were collected, washed in 30 ml of homogenization buffer and further centrifuged at 22,000 × g for 15 min at 4°CT. The pellet was resuspended in in EBC buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl pH 8.0, 120 mM NaCl and 0.5% NP-40) containing complete mini-protease inhibitor (Roche Diagnostics) and phosphatase inhibitor cocktail 1 and 2 (Sigma–Aldrich)) for Western blot analysis or lysis buffer for RNA extraction (GenElute Mammalian Total RNA Miniprep Kit, Sigma).