Gene Expression of Kidney from FHH and Nr4a1 Deficient Rats

Nr4a1 deficient rats (Nr4a1-/-) were developed using the fawn hooded hypertensive rat (FHH), which provided a genetic background susceptible to kidney injury. Both groups of animals were evaluated for blood pressure, proteinuria, renal function, and whole transcriptome gene pathway changes. Gene expression profiling was performed at week 8, 16, and 24 using kidney from FHH and Nr4a1-/- rats. To identify differentially expressed gene between FHH and Nr4a1-/- two statistical methods were utilized: (1) FWER (family-wise error rate) procedure, p<0.05 and fold-change ±1.2 or greater; and/or (2) Benjamani and Hochberg FDR (false discovery rate) using p<0.05, and fold-change ±1.2 or greater. Two-way ANOVA using a p<0.01 or lower was performed to identify strain X time interaction effects between groups. Gene networks and functional analysis were evaluated through the use of Ingenuity Pathways Analysis . FHH and Nr4a1-/- rats were grown to 8, 16, and 24 weeks of age and kidney tissue was harvested for transcriptome analysis (n=3 replicates/ per group/ time)