Gene expression profile analyses of mice livers injured by Leigongteng

AIM： To analyze the gene expression profiles of mice livers injured by Leigongteng and explore the relationship between the differentially expressed genes and liver damage. METHODS： The experimental mice were randomly divided into a control group and a liver-injured group in which the mice were administrated 33 μγ, of triptolide/ kg per day for 30 d. Liver mRNAs were extracted from animals in both groups and were reverse-transcribed to cDNA with dUTP labeled by different fluorescence （Cy3, Cy5） as hybridization probes. The mixed probes were hybridized with oligonucleotide microarray chips. The fluorescent signal results were acquired by scanner and analyzed with software. RESULTS： Among the 35852 target genes, 29 genes were found to be significantly differentially expressed, with 20 genes up-regulated and 9 genes down-regulated. The reliability of the differentially expressed genes was validated by RT-PCR experiments of 5 randomly selected differentially expressed genes. CONCLUSION： Based on the biological functions of the differentially expressed genes, it is obvious that the occurrence and development of liver damage induced by Leigongteng in mice are highly associated with immune response, metabolism, apoptosis and the cell skeleton of liver cells. This might be important for elucidating the regulatory network of gene expression associated with liver damage and it may also be important for discovering the pathogenic mechanisms of liver damage induced by Leigongteng.