Expression Patterns and Action Analysis of Genes Associated with the Responses to Ischemia , Hypoxia and Starvation during Rat Liver Regeneration

Objective .The aim of this project was to study the responses to ischemia , hypoxia and starvation af ter partial hepatectomy ( P H) at t ranscrip tional level . Methods . T he genes associated with t he responses to ischemia, hypoxia and starvation were obtained by collecting t he data of databases and referring to theses . T heir expression changes in regenerating liver were checked by t he Rat Genome 230 2 .0 Array . Results . It was found t hat 120 , 65 and 23 genes respectively associated to t he responses to ischemia , hypoxia, starvation were associated with liver re- generation ( LR) . T he initial and total expressing gene numbers occurring in initiation of LR ( 0 .5 - 4 hours af ter PH ) , transition from G0 to G1 (4 - 6 hours after P H) , cell proliferation (6 - 66 hours after PH ) , cell differen tia- tion and structure-function reorganization (66 - 168 hours after P H) were 54 , 11 , 34 , 3 and 54 , 49 , 70 , 49 re- spectively , which illustrated that t he genes were mainly triggered in the initial phase, and worked at differen t phas- es . According to t heir expression similarity , t hese genes were classified in to 5 t ypes including 63 only up- , 26 pre- dominan tly up- , 63 only down- , 16 predominantly down- , and 8 up/ down-regulated genes , and the total times of their up- and down-regulated expression were 639 and 372 , demonst rating that t he expression of major genes was enhanced during LR , while t he minority at tenuated . According to the time relevance , they were classified into 14 groups , demonst rating that the cellular physiological and biochemical activities were staggered during L R. Accord- ing to gene expression patterns , t hey were classified into 24 t ypes , showing t hat the activities mentioned above were diverse and complicated during LR . Conclusion . T he response to ischemia was mainly enhanced in the prophase, and hypoxia enhanced almost during t he LR , while t he response to starvation was nearly no change during LR , in which 176 genes associated with LR played an impor tant role .( Life Science Journal . 2006 ; 3 (4 ) : 1 - 11 ) ( ISSN: 1097 - 8135 ) .