Gene responses to hyperglycaemia.
The rising tide of diabetic nephropathy (DN) is arguably the most challenging clinical problem confronting nephrologists at the beginning of the new century. Central to the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies will be the elucidation of the molecular events that drive this complex disease. In this review, we briefly discuss the major growth factors and cytokines identified as mediators of tissue injury in DN in the "pre-gene subtraction" era. We then highlight the remarkable array of new molecular players already identified with the introduction of gene subtraction techniques, such as differential-display PCR, suppression-subtractive hybridization, and nucleotide micro-arrays, and discuss the likely impact of these technologies going forward. Finally, we summarize the current knowledge on the cell signalling events triggered by high glucose levels that influence gene expression in DN and that represent additional therapeutic targets in this setting.
Lappin
David W P
DW
Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, University College of Dublin, 41 Eccles Street, Dublin 7, Ireland.
Doran
Peter
P
Godson
Catherine
C
Brady
Hugh R
HR
D003928:Diabetic Nephropathies / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D006943:Hyperglycemia / Q000235:genetics*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics