High-salt diet leads to differential gene expression in DOCA-treated mice

In the present study we made use of the (1-renin) DOCA-salt mouse model - which has been previously shown to develop cardiac and renal hypertrophy - to evaluate the direct effects of high-salt diet on cardiac function and gene expression profiling. The comparison between low-salt and high-salt DOCA-treated mice will reveal what genes are directly modulated by sodium in (normotensive) DOCA-treated mice. Previous publications: Wang Q, Hummler E, Nussberger J, Clement S, Gabbiani G, Brunner HR, Burnier M. Blood pressure, cardiac, and renal responses to salt and deoxycorticosterone acetate in mice: role of renin genes. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2002;13:1509 –1516. Wang Q, Domenighetti AA, Pedrazzini T, Burnier M. Potassium supplementation reduces cardiac and renal hypertrophy independent of blood pressure in DOCA/salt mice. Hypertension. 2005 Sep;46(3):547-54. Keywords: comparative dose-response treatment (2 groups) In this first series, six (7-8 week old) DOCA-treated mice were separated in 2 groups: Group1 (Low-Salt)= LS + Nx + DOCA35 + tap (LS= 0.5mg Na/g food; Nx= uninephrectomized; DOCA35= deoxycorticosterone acetate for 5 weeks; tap= normal drinking water) Group2 (High-salt)= LS + Nx + DOCA35 + 1%NaCl (LS= 0.5mg Na/g food; Nx= uninephrectomized; DOCA35= deoxycorticosterone acetate for 5 weeks; 1%NaCl= 1%NaCl in drinking water for 5 weeks) cDNA high-density microarray assays were used to explore changes in cardiac expression of ~17’000 clones in hearts of Low-salt and High-salt treated DOCA-mice. This series contains 3 biological replicates and one dye swap.