Delayed activation of host innate immune pathways in streptozotocin-induced diabetic hosts leads to more severe disease during infection with Burkholderia pseudomallei

The purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive picture of the STZ-diabetic host transcriptional response during the acute stage of melioidosis and investigate the interplay between the diabetic host response and Burkholderia pseudomallei. To adress this, we compared the transcriptome of infected STZ-diabetic liver and spleen with uninfected STZ-diabetic tissues over an infection period of 42 hr (16 hpi, 24 hpi and 42 hpi, respectively) to identify genes whose expression is altered in response to an acute infection. The microarray experimental design included 3 biological replicates for each time point and both liver and spleen were harvested for RNA extraction. The microarray data from each time point was compared relative to uninfected diabetic mice. In addition, the transcriptome of uninfected STZ-diabetic liver and spleen were also compared with uninfected buffer (sodium citrate) control mice.