Global analysis of gene expression in gastric ischemia-reperfusion: a future therapeutic direction for mucosal protective drugs.

Gastric ischemia-reperfusion is a relatively common condition leading to mucosal injury and may affect mucosal repair via modulating the gene expression of growth factors. Therefore, precise understanding of the molecular mechanism of ischemia or ischemia-reperfusion may lead to the discovery of new mucosal protective drugs. DNA microarray analysis followed by powerful data analysis has the potential to uncover previously undescribed genes involved in gastric injury and lead to an increased understanding of gastric mucosal cytoprotection. We introduced the laser-assisted microdissection to obtain cell-specific RNA from gastric mucosa in vivo and obtained sufficient amounts of cRNA for GeneChip analysis. This comprehensive approach enabled the simultaneous analysis of many genes, including transcriptional factors, as well as the generation of novel hypothesis on the mechanism of action of gastro-protective agents.