Gene expression profiles in experimental uremic cardiomyopathy.

Purpose: To define differentially regulated pathways in heart tissue from mice with chornic kidney disease (CKD) compared to age-matched controls. Methods: CKD was induced in 5-week-old, male 129X1/SvJ mice (JAX) through five-sixths nephrectomy in a two-step surgery (n=5). Age-matched mice undergoing bilateral sham surgeries served as controls (n=5). Heart tissue was collected at 8 weeks of CKD for next generation sequencing. Results: Hearts from mice with uremic cardiomyopathy yielded over 1,000 differentially-expressed mRNA transcripts compared to hearts from age-matched, sham-operated mice. Ingenuity biofunctions analysis identified significant enrichment for genes involved in Tissue Morphology, Immune Cell Trafficking, Cardiovascular Development and Function, and Humoral Immune Response. We focused on Ingenuity canonical pathways involving inflammation and immune system function including pathways needed for a T-cell mediated response: leukocyte extravasation, antigen presentation, dendritic cell maturation, T cell co-stimulatory signaling, and T-helper cell differentiation. Conclusions: Left ventricles from mice with CKD display differential expression in a number of pathways suggesting inflammation and surprisingly involved genes involved in the adaptive immune system. Left ventricular mRNA profiles from 5 mice with CKD and 5 normal mice were generated using next generation RNA sequencing on the Illumina HiSeq 1000.