Use of microarray analyses to determine the effect of hyperoxia and hypoxia on gene expression in early oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR).

Different inbred strains of rats differ in their susceptibility to OIR, an animal model of human retinopathy of prematurity. We examined gene expression profiles in Fischer 344 (F344, resistant to OIR) and Sprague Dawley (SD, susceptible to OIR) rats at the early time points of day 5 (in response to hyperoxia) and day 6 (in response to relative hypoxia) to identify gene pathways related to the underlying genetic cause of the phenotypic differences observed between strains.