title: Gene expression profiles of apoptotic neurons.
abstract: The multigenic program underlying neuronal apoptosis is mostly unknown. To study the program, we used genome-scale screening by oligonucleotide microarrays during serum and potassium deprivation-induced apoptosis of cerebellar granule neurons. From the 8740 genes interrogated by the arrays, 423 genes were found to be regulated at both the transcriptional and the posttranscriptional level and segregated into distinct clusters. Semantic clustering based on gene ontologies showed coordinated expression of genes with common biological functions and metabolic pathways. Among the genes implicated in apoptotic cerebellar granule neurons, 70 were in common with those differentially expressed in cortical neurons exposed to amyloid beta-protein, indicating the existence of common mechanisms responsible for neuronal cell death. Our results offer a genomic view of the changes that accompany neuronal apoptosis and yield new insights into the underlying molecular basis.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurological Sciences, Italian National Research Council, 95123 Catania, Italy. s.cavallaro@isn.cnr.it
authors.forename: Sebastiano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cavallaro
authors.forename: Velia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: D'Agata
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alessi
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Coffa
authors.forename: Daniel L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Alkon
authors.forename: Pachiappan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Manickam
authors.forename: Maria Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Ciotti
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Possenti
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bonini
authors.forename: Lionel
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marlier
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Calissano
mesh_terms: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000378:metabolism; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003609:Dactinomycin; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005796:Genes / Q000235:genetics*; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011191:Potassium Deficiency / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D003609:Dactinomycin