Gene Expression Changes due to Rat Lung Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality following conventional lung transplantation and warm ischemia may limit success of transplanting lungs from non-heart-beating donors. We sought to determine alterations in gene expression in rat lung tissue subjected to warm ischemia in vivo followed by reperfusion. Keywords: time course We compared gene expression from 6 normal lungs to left lungs subjected to 2 hours of in situ warm ischemia by hilar clamping, reperfused for 30 minutes (n=3) or 3 hours (n=3). We also analyzed gene expression in the contralateral right lungs retrieved at the same time points. Anesthetized ventilated male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent left lung hilar clamping for two hours, then the left lungs were reperfused and ventilated for 30 minutes (n=3) or 3 hours (n=3). Both the right and left lungs were retrieved for RNA extraction. RNA retrieved from lungs of six rats retrieved immediately after sacrifice served as controls. RNA was reverse transcribed into cDNA and hybridized to Affymetrix® REA 230A gene arrays. Expression data was analyzed by GeneSpring software 7.2.