atlases to guide the process. The RNA was extracted using the PicoPure (Arcturus) RNA spin column purification kit according to manufacturer's directions followed by mRNA amplification. It has been shown by our laboratory and others that amplification of laser-captured RNA clarifies rather than distorts differences between samples [28]. This process was performed using the RiboAmp RNA amplification kit (Arcturus) according to the manufacturer's directions for a single round of amplification, and the amount of material was quantified by absorbance spectrophotometry and then subjected to reverse transcription using random hexomer primers as described above. Amplified mRNA was then used for real-time PCR-based quantification as described.
