Gene expression profileanalysis of the liver in BALB/C mice infected with echinococcus multilocularis by cDNAmicroarray

Abstract

：Objective Tocharacterize a mRNA expression profile of the liver in BALB/C mice infected withechinococcus muhilocularis (Em). Methods Fifteen BLAB/C mice were randomly divided intotwo groups: experimental group (10 mice) and control group (5 mice). Em infection wasperformed after laparotomy by intra-hepatic injection of the metacestede suspension(experimental animals) or of the medium used to prepare the metacestede suspension(control animals) under a surgical microscope. After 8 weeks, the mouse liver samples werecollected and used to extract total RNA. The expression levels of approximately 25 000genes were analyzed in the BALB/C mouse liver infected with Em and compared with those inthe liver from control group by a 36 K mouse long oligonucleotide cDNA microarray. Themicroar-ray data validation was confirmed by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Results The microarray data showed that the expressionlevels of 108 genes were remarkably altered and these genes were associated withmetabolism, signal transduction, cell cycle and proliferation, cytoskeleton, apoptosis,immune response, and other processes, which was highly accurate as confirmed by qPCR.Conclusion Many differentially expressed genes with different functions interact with eachother to result in liver injury by Em infection.