Nature Methods: Sensitive and specific method for detecting G protein–coupled receptor mRNAs
Arne Hansen, Yidong Chen, Jason M Inman, Quang N Phan, Zhi-Qing Qi, Charlie C Xiang, Miklos Palkovits, Natasha Cherman, Sergei A Kuznetsov, Pamela G Robey, Eva Mezey & Michael J Brownstein
Abstract
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) mediate the effects of extracellular signaling molecules in all the body’s cells. These receptors are encoded by scarce mRNAs; therefore, detecting their transcripts with conventional microarrays is difficult. We present a method based on multiplex PCR and array detection of amplicons to assay GPCR gene expression with as little as 1 μg of total RNA, and using it, we profiled three human bone marrow stromal cell (BMSC) lines.
