Purpose: Although a few gene-profiling studies with whole renal tissue have been described in experimental diabetic nephropathy, there is only one microarray study using diabetic glomeruli.
Furthermore, hypertrophic glomeruli have not been explored. The purpose of this study is to elucidate gene expression profiles of hypertrophic glomeruli in early diabetic nephropathy.
Methods: Forty-male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected with diluent (N=20) or streptozotocin intraperitoneally
(DM, N=20) and were sacrificed at 6- and 12-week. Glomeruli were isolated by sieving technique. Glomeruli from 125 and 75 m sieves were classified into large (hypertrophic, DM-LG) and small glomeruli (DM-SG), respectively. After RNA extraction, hybridization was performed on the Rat cDNA 5K chip in triplicate, and slides were analyzed. The significant genes were selected using significant analysis of microarray.
Results: At 6-week, hierarchical clustering revealed that gene expression profiles of DM-LG were different from those of DM-SG, whereas DM-SG and C glomeruli showed similar gene expression pattern. In contrast, gene expression profiles at 12-week were similar between DM-LG and DM-SG, whereas C glomeruli showed different gene expression pattern from DM glomeruli. At 6-week, a total of 207 genes showed greater than 1.5-fold differential expression. 149 genes were upregulated, whereas 58 were downregulated in DM-LG. On the other hand, differential gene expression greater than 1.4 - fold was observed in 37 genes at 12-week, upregulated in 26 and downregulated in 11.
Conclusion: These results suggest that the gene expression profiles of DM-LG are different from DM-SG, and the gene expression patterns change with the progression of diabetic nephropathy.ope
