Use of differential display to identify differentially expressed mRNAs induced by rat carotid artery balloon angioplasty.

BACKGROUND

We have used differential display technology in an animal model of arterial restenosis to study the molecular mechanisms of neointima formation.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Balloon angioplasty of the rat common carotid artery was performed, and tissues were examined from naive animals (control) and from animals that had undergone angioplasty 6 hours, 3 days, and 14 days earlier. Total RNA was isolated, and differential display was performed to identify mRNA transcripts whose expression is modulated in a temporal fashion as a consequence of balloon angioplasty.

RESULTS

Using total RNA isolated from vessels excised from naive rats and those from rats that underwent angioplasty up to 14 days earlier, we describe two differentially regulated transcripts by differential display and verify the expression pattern of these same transcripts by Northern analysis. DNA sequence analysis has identified one of these angioplasty-induced transcripts as a novel sequence and the other as the tryptophan hydroxylase and protein kinase C regulatory protein 14-3-3 gamma.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, we describe the in vivo application of the differential display technique in a rat carotid artery angioplasty model to identify mRNA transcripts whose expression is modulated selectively in vessels undergoing neointima formation. Use of this technique in animal models of disease should facilitate our understanding of gene expression patterns in pathogenesis and may serve as a reliable technique to "fingerprint" disease processes.