Identification of the up- and down-regulated genes in the heart of juvenile visceral steatosis mice.

Abstract

Juvenile visceral steatosis (JVS) mice, novel animal models of systemic carnitine deficiency, exhibit a remarkably increased number of mitochondria in their cardiac myocytes. To date, however, there has been no reported investigation of the molecular mechanism of this increased number of mitochondria. Here, we analyzed the gene expression profile from the hearts of JVS and control mice by Affymetrix GeneChip analysis representing 34323 genes. We found that 176 genes, containing 93 known genes and 83 novel genes, were up-regulated in JVS mice compared with control mice, and 167 genes, containing 67 known genes and 100 novel genes, were down-regulated in JVS mice compared with control mice. We found several interesting molecular aspects that have not yet been identified in the hearts of JVS mice, including down-regulation of a number of ion channels and up-regulation of regulators involved in cell cycle progression. This genome-wide analysis should contribute to a greater understanding of the molecular mechanism of mitochondrial biogenesis in the heart of JVS mouse and provide a strategy for identifying novel genes involved not only in mitochondrial biogenesis but also in cardiac hypertrophy.