Differential gene expression in gram-negative and gram-positive sepsis.
Sepsis is the most common cause of death in patients in the intensive care unit. Genome-wide gene expression analysis can provide insights into the molecular alterations of sepsis. Total mRNA was extracted from the livers of 6 uninfected control mice and 60 septic mice after infusion of either live Escherichia coli or Staphylococcus aureus. Using a murine complementary DNA microarray system, changes in gene expression were monitored at six time points (uninfected, 2, 8, 24, 48, and 72 hours). Overall, 4.8% of 6,144 assessed genes were differentially regulated with a greater than twofold change across all time points. Most of the genes with altered expression were commonly present in gram-negative and gram-positive sepsis, but the expression levels of 17 genes were different between both types of sepsis at particular time points after infection. The microarray results support the hypothesis that both gram-positive and gram-negative sepsis share a final common pathway involved in the pathogenesis of sepsis, but certain genes are differentially expressed under distinct regulation. These results may provide insights into the pathogenesis of sepsis and may also help identify some altered genes that can serve as new targets for diagnostic tools and therapeutic strategies.
Yu
Sung-Liang
SL
Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Chen
Huei-Wen
HW
Yang
Pan-Chyr
PC
Peck
Konan
K
Tsai
Min-Hui
MH
Chen
Jeremy J W
JJ
Lin
Fang-Yue
FY
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000235:genetics*; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D016905:Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / Q000235:genetics*; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000235:genetics*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011336:Probability; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics
D012333:RNA, Messenger