Kidney from controls and SDHD-ESR mice

Several mechanisms have been proposed to account for Sdh-mutation-induced tumorigenesis, the most accepted of which is based on the constitutive expression of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1alpha (Hif1alpha) at normal oxygen tension, a theory referred to as pseudo-hypoxic drive. Other molecular processes, such as oxidative stress, apoptosis or chromatin remodeling have been also proposed to play a causative role. Nevertheless, the actual contribution of each of these mechanisms has not been definitively established. Moreover, the biological factors that determine the tissue-specificity of these tumors have not been identified. In this work, we made use of the inducible SDHD-ESR mouse, a conditional mutant in the SdhD gene, which encodes the small subunit of MCII, and that acts as a tumor suppressor gene in humans. We performed microarray analysis of kidney in order to identify other early gene expression changes elicited by SdhD deletion. 8 samples from heterozygous (+/-) and 8 samples from null mutants (SDHD-ESR), paired by two and hybrydized against a pool of 8 samples from homozygous wt (+/+) animals.