title: Transcriptomic alterations in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected cardiac myocytes.
abstract: Trypanosoma cruzi infection is a major cause of cardiomyopathy. Previous gene profiling studies of infected mouse hearts have revealed prominent changes in gene expression within many functional pathways. This variety of transcriptomic changes in infected mice raises the question of whether gene expression alterations in whole hearts are due to changes in infected cardiac myocytes or other cells or even to systemic effects of the infection on the heart. We employed microarrays to examine infected cardiac myocyte cultures 48 h post-infection. Statistical comparison of gene expression levels of 7624 well annotated unigenes in four independent cultures of infected and uninfected myocytes detected substantial (>or=1.5 absolute fold changes) in 420 (5.5%) of the sampled genes. Major categories of affected genes included those involved in immune response, extracellular matrix and cell adhesion. These findings on infected cardiac myocytes in culture reveal that alterations in cardiac gene expression described in Chagas disease are the consequence of both direct infection of the myocytes themselves as well as resulting from the presence of other cell types in the myocardium and systemic effects of infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Regina Coeli Dos Santos
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Goldenberg
authors.forename: Dumitru A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Iacobas
authors.forename: Sanda
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iacobas
authors.forename: Leonardo Lima
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Rocha
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: da Silva de Azevedo Fortes
authors.forename: Leandro
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vairo
authors.forename: Fnu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nagajyothi
authors.forename: Antonio Carlos
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Campos de Carvalho
authors.forename: Herbert B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Tanowitz
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Spray
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002598:Chagas Cardiomyopathy / Q000469:parasitology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000469:parasitology*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000472:pathogenicity*
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins