Physiol. Genomics 32: 370-379, 2008.
First published December 4, 2007; doi:10.1152/physiolgenomics.00147.2007
1094-8341/08 $8.00
Received 10 July 2007;
accepted in final form 3 December 2007.
Physiological Genomics 32:370-379 (2008)
1094-8341/08 $8.00 © 2008 American Physiological Society
Gene expression in mouse brain following chronic hypoxia: role of sarcospan in glial cell death
Dan Zhou1,*,
Jiyi Wang1,*,
Matthew A. Zapala2,
Jin Xue1,
Nicholas J. Schork2 and
Gabriel G. Haddad1,3
1 Department of Pediatrics (Section of Respiratory Medicine) and Neuroscience, University of California San Diego, La Jolla
2 Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla
3 The Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego, San Diego, California
Hypoxia is a hallmark of respiratory, neurological, or hematological diseases as well as life at high altitude. For example, chronic constant hypoxia (CCH) occurs in chronic lung diseases or at high altitude, whereas chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) occurs in diseases such as sleep apnea or sickle cell disease. Despite the fact that such conditions are frequent, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the effect of hypoxia, whether constant or intermittent, are not well understood. In this study, we first determined the effect of CCH and CIH on global gene expression in different regions of mouse brain using microarrays and then investigated the biological role of genes of interest. We found that: 1) in the cortical region, the expression level of 80 genes was significantly altered by CIH (16 up- and 64 downregulated), and this number increased to 137 genes following CCH (34 up- and 103 downregulated); 2) a similar number of gene alterations was identified in the hippocampal area, and the majority of the changes in this region were upregulations; 3) two genes (Sspn and Ttc27) were downregulated in both brain regions and following both treatments; and 4) RNA interference-mediated knockdown of Sspn increased cell death in hypoxia in a cell culture system. We conclude that CIH or CCH induced significant and distinguishable alterations in gene expression in cortex and hippocampus and that Sspn seems to play a critical role in inducing cell death under hypoxic conditions.
expression profile; central nervous system; oxygen deprivation; development
Copyright © 2008 by the American Physiological Society.