Differential gene expression in the heart of hypoxic chicken fetuses (Gallus gallus)

• Main Author: Nindorera, Yves
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för fysik, kemi och biologi 2009
• Subjects: Cardiac myocytes; hypertrophy; hypoxia; microarray; quantitative PCR; Biology; Biologi; Cell and molecular biology; Cell- och molekylärbiologi; Genetics; Genetik
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-18939

Evidence has shown that hypoxic hearts have greater heart/fetus mass ratio. However, it is still unclear if either hyperplasia or hypertrophy causes the relatively increased heart mass. Furthermore, the genes that might be involved in the process have not yet been identified. In the present study, the cardiac transcriptome was analyzed to identify differentially expressed genes related to hypoxia. Eggs were incubated for 15 and 19 days in two different environments, normoxic and hypoxic. Normalized microarray results were analyzed to isolate differentially expressed probes using the Affymetrix chip. Total RNA was also isolated from another set of fetuses incubated in the same conditions and used to perform a qPCR in order to confirm the microarray results. In the four groups (15N, 15H, 19N, 19H), some probes were differentially expressed. From the eggs incubated for 15 days, the microarray revealed five probes that were differentially expressed according to the criteria (p<0.01 and absolute fold change FC>2) in the two programs (PLIER & RMA) used to normalize the data. From the eggs incubated up to 19 days, eight probes were differentially expressed in both programs. No further tests were performed on the 19 days fetuses since there was no significant difference in that group after incubation for the heart/fetus mass ratio. Apolipoprotein-A1, p22, similar to ENS-1 and b2 adrenergic receptor were further tested in qPCR (15 days sample). The differently expressed genes are linked to cell division and should be further studied to identify their function, especially the similar to ENS-1.