Alteration of hepatic gene expression profile in NPC mice correlates with tissue damage and oxidative stress status
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background: Niemann Pick type C disease (NPC) is a neurovisceral lipid storage disorder, characterized by unesterified cholesterol accumulation in lysosomal/late endosome compartments. The main tissues affected in the disease are the liver and the cerebellum. Although the primary defect in this disease occurs in the liver, the pathological mechanisms involved in hepatocyte damage and death have been poorly explored. Here, we assessed biochemical parameters, liver histology and the mRNA abundance of genes encoding proteins associated to oxidative stress, copper metabolism, fibrosis and inflammation and cholesterol metabolism in livers of WT and NPC mice. Methodology/Principal Findings: We found that the histology of NPC mice livers show signals of inflammation and fibrosis. This was correlated with an increase of carbonylated proteins and reduced glutathione content in the liver, as well as a significantly increment of total content of copper in liver tissue. Finally, we analyzed the liver gene expression pattern by qPCR and microarray assays. We found a correlation between the tissue fibrotic status and a differential hepatic expression of genes related to oxidative stress, fibrosis and inflammation processes in NPC mice. Conclusions/Significance: Our data show that NPC liver disease is evidenced by an increase in fibrosis as well as in oxidative stress status. Concomitantly, there is a correlation with an altered gene expression pattern, mainly of oxidative stress and fibrosis related genes, which could be useful as a potential disease progression biomarkers. We compared three liver samples from NPC mice to a common reference sample made from pooled mRNA of three wild type mice
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
SUBMITTER: Leonardo Pavez
PROVIDER: E-GEOD-24013 | biostudies-arrayexpress |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress
ACCESS DATA