Comparative analysis of gene expression in A/J CS vs Air lungs.

We hypothesize that gene expression in the CS-exposed lungs of this strain (A/J) of mice would be able to give clues about the molecular mechanism of emphysema development, thus contributing to this phenotype. More specifically, although imbalance in oxidants/antioxidants and proteinase/antiproteinase pathways drives the pathogenesis of COPD, the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of emphysema are poorly understood. In order to test this hypothesis at the gene expression level, we utilized microarray analysis to examine transcriptional differences between CS-exposed and Air-exposed groups of mice. Keywords: comparative expression profiling This study utilizes microarray analysis to test these hypotheses. Three sets of lungs were harvested from both groups at each time point (A/J - CS exposed OR Air-exposed: 5 hr, 8 days, 1.5 mos, and 6 mos). RNA was isolated and used for global gene expression profiling (Affymetrix Mouse 430 2.0 array). Statistically significant gene expression was determined as a minimum 6 counts of 9 pairwise comparisons, minimum 1.5-fold change, and p < 0.05.