Global transcriptomic profiling of nitric oxide-mediated neuronal death

Nitric oxide (NO) is implicated in the pathogenesis of various neuropathologies characterised by oxidative stress. NO has been reported to be involved in the exacerbation of oxidative stress by various mechanisms, including protein modification, genotoxic damage and elevated production of reactive oxygen species resulting in deregulation and disruption of cellular homeostasis. Although multiple roles for NO has been reported in neuronal death signaling, existent data fail to provide a holistic description of how nitrergic pathobiology elicits neuronal injury. Here we provide a comprehensive description of mechanisms contributing to NO-induced neuronal injury by global transcriptomic profiling. Microarray analysis was carried out using 14 GeneChip Mouse Genome 430 2.0 array (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA). The assignment of the arrays (GeneChip) was as follows: vehicle-treated control (n=5); NOC-18-treatment for 8, 15 and 24 hour (n=3 for each time-point).