Abstract
Our aim was to investigate the in vivo gene expression pattern of the Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) with DNA microarrays and bioinformatics tools. Oral-infusion model animals mimicking human infection of GBS were analyzed. Tissue samples and body fluids were collected to perform antibody tests and biopsy assays. Gene-expression microarray was conducted with nerve tissues and GBS-related genes were elucidated via bioinformatics tools. Model animals showed typical symptoms of GBS in that mild demyelination was shown by cerebellar white matter and by lumbar enlargement of model animals. Then, 81.25% of the model animals were positive with GM1-IgG antibodies by ELISA. In the microarray analysis, 1,261 genes were identified with statistically different expression (P < 0.05), 21 of which were associated with gene function analysis, gene pathway identification, signal transduction and co-expression network construction. Furthermore, quantitative PCR was used to characterize the gene expression level. We found that genes of HPRT1, PKC and PPARGC-1 were in the core of the network, while the expression of PPARGC-1, SUS2DD and AMPKA2 were significantly inhibited. A total of 21 genes were found to be actively involved in the process of protein transportation, transcriptional regulation, antigen identification and cell cycle regulation during the GBS infection period. The co-expression network indicated an important association between GBS and the 21 genes, especially the down-regulated ones. In conclusion, we demonstrated that GBS-affected hosts had a specific gene expression profile, which may guide the direction of GBS research and therapy.
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Acknowledgements
The author thanks the members of the research group, as well as Prof Brendan W. Wren from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine for helpful suggestions. Research at the author’s laboratory is supported by the AQSIQ research projects (No. 2009IK135、2010IK128); 12th Five Years Key Programs for Science and Technology Development of China.
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Feng Xue, Dexin Zeng, Rui Zhang and Fei Xu contributed equally to this work.
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Xue, F., Zeng, D., Xu, F. et al. Gene expression profile of campylobacter jejuni-induced GBS in bama miniature pigs. Cell Tissue Res 348, 523–536 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-012-1382-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-012-1382-z