Project description:Evaluation of early transcriptional changes in blood brain barrier genes involved in the patogenesis of brain edema associated with ALF. Two different well stablished rat models were analyzed: Portacaval anastomosis plus hepatic artery ligation and portacaval anastomosis plus total hepatectomy. ALF was induced by portocaval anastomosis (PCA) and 24 hours after the surgery animals underwent hepatic artery ligation (HAL) or total hepatectomy (HEP). Sham rats were subjected to a fictitious two-step surgery. Between 8 and 12 hours after the last surgery rats were euthanized by decapitation, to avoid anesthetic effects, and cortical microvessels isolated.
Project description:A filtration method followed by microarray analyses allows PDE components to be identified in brain microvessels, and confirmed that PDE4D and PDE5A are the primary forms expressed in rat brain microvessels. Adult male F344 rats were sacrificed and blocks of the cerebral cortex and infratentorial areas were dissected. Microvessels were isolated using a filtration method, and total RNA was extracted. Two microarrays using four sample RNAs (microvessels from the cerebral cortex vs. microvessels from the infratentorial block) were included in the present study. Microarrays demonstrated that there were 16 PDE transcripts in the PDE superfamily, exhibiting quantifiable density in the microvessels.
Project description:In order to establish a rat embryonic stem cell transcriptome, mRNA from rESC cell line DAc8, the first male germline competent rat ESC line to be described and the first to be used to generate a knockout rat model was characterized using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis.
Project description:A series of two color gene expression profiles obtained using Agilent 44K expression microarrays was used to examine sex-dependent and growth hormone-dependent differences in gene expression in rat liver. This series is comprised of pools of RNA prepared from untreated male and female rat liver, hypophysectomized (‘Hypox’) male and female rat liver, and from livers of Hypox male rats treated with either a single injection of growth hormone and then killed 30, 60, or 90 min later, or from livers of Hypox male rats treated with two growth hormone injections spaced 3 or 4 hr apart and killed 30 min after the second injection. The pools were paired to generate the following 6 direct microarray comparisons: 1) untreated male liver vs. untreated female liver; 2) Hypox male liver vs. untreated male liver; 3) Hypox female liver vs. untreated female liver; 4) Hypox male liver vs. Hypox female liver; 5) Hypox male liver + 1 growth hormone injection vs. Hypox male liver; and 6) Hypox male liver + 2 growth hormone injections vs. Hypox male liver. A comparison of untreated male liver and untreated female liver liver gene expression profiles showed that of the genes that showed significant expression differences in at least one of the 6 data sets, 25% were sex-specific. Moreover, sex specificity was lost for 88% of the male-specific genes and 94% of the female-specific genes following hypophysectomy. 25-31% of the sex-specific genes whose expression is altered by hypophysectomy responded to short-term growth hormone treatment in hypox male liver. 18-19% of the sex-specific genes whose expression decreased following hypophysectomy were up-regulated after either one or two growth hormone injections. Finally, growth hormone suppressed 24-36% of the sex-specific genes whose expression was up-regulated following hypophysectomy, indicating that growth hormone acts via both positive and negative regulatory mechanisms to establish and maintain the sex specificity of liver gene expression. For full details, see V. Wauthier and D.J. Waxman, Molecular Endocrinology (2008)