Cardiovascular changes in the NZB/W F1 mouse model of lupus nephritis

Lupus nephritis with pronounced signs of chronic kidney disease leads to significant changes in the heart. It is not yet clear whether these changes are caused by the chronic kidney disease or by the autoimmune disease. It is also unclear which factors are responsible for the cardiovascular changes. Therefore, the gene expression of mice with lupus nephritis (NZB_W) will be compared with healthy controls (NZW). Mouse hearts were collected from NZB_W female mice with moderate kidney injury according to Austin scoring with an age of 12-15 weeks(NZB-W) and healty age matched controls (NZW), followed by mRNA isolation and hybridization on Mouse Genome 430 2.0 Array. This experiment was done as a pilot test to identify candidate genes that were differentially regulated during cardiac alterations induced by lupus nephritis.