Exploration of gene status in renal tissues of rats with anti-thymocyte serum nephritis by genechip

AIM: To explore gene expression in renal tissues from rats with mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis(MPGN),namely,anti-thymocyte serum nephritis(ATSN),at 40 minutes and 5 days after injection with rabbit anti-thymocyte serum(ATS),and to analyze the differences of gene spectrum and functions between the two phases of ATSN with genechip.METHODS: The rat model of ATSN was reproduced by injection of ATS to the animals.40 minutes and 5 days later,the total RNA in renal tissues was extracted. Further,genechip probe produced by reverse transcription with fluorescence mixed into the first chain of cDNA from the two phases RNA was hybridized with the rat cDNA expression sequence chip severally.The chips were subsequently scanned by Agilent scanner and read with Imagene software.In succession,normalized data and the ratio of the gene fluorescent intensity in ATSN and the control groups were performed with Genespring,by which the down-regulated genes with ratios equal or lower 0.5 and the up-regulated genes with ratios equal or higher than 2 were screened out.Finally,the selected up-regulated and down-regulated genes were searched in GenBank to find the relative functions.RESULTS: There were 341 increased genes,including apoptosis,proliferation and signal transduction related genes at 40 minutes after ATS injection.392 decreased genes containing a number of enzyme related genes,growth factors and cytokine receptors,etc,were also observed.In addition,there were 213 increased genes and 119 lessened genes at 5 days of ATSN,while most of the functions of many genes remained unclear.CONCLUSIONS: At the early period of the ATSN(40 min),some nosogenetic genes,such as apoptotic and proliferative genes as well as several signal transduction-related genes are activated and expressed significantly,while the profile of gene expression at 5 days,such as many proliferative genes or transduction-related genes,are changed.