Spironolactone effect on renal RNA expression in 36 wk old NZB/W F1 female mice. Mus musculus

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of aldosterone receptor blockade on the immunopathogenesis and progression of nephritis in the (NZBxNZW) F1 murine lupus model. Female NZB/W F1 mice (11 weeks old) were treated daily with 25 or 50 mg/kg of oral spironolactone or vehicle. Proteinuria, renal function and serum autoantibody levels were monitored. Renal histopathology, immune complex deposition, and immunohistochemistry were analyzed at various time points. Targeted microarray analysis was performed on renal tissue, with subsequent real time PCR analysis of several differentially expressed genes. Keywords: treatment study Overall design: At 36 weeks of age, 8 mice from each treatment group (vehicle, 25 mg/kg/d spironolactone and 50 mg/kg/d spironolactone) were anesthetized and perfused with cold saline; then one kidney per mouse was removed , homogenized in Tripure, and frozen at -80 until RNA extraction. RNA was extracted using Tripure and a Qiagen RNEasy Minikit. RNA was pooled equally by weight within each treatment group and frozen at -80. Subsequently, the three batches of pooled RNA were processed for microarray analysis.